Stunning photo by @bookish_euphoria!
Hey fairy friends!
Welcome to our fifth and final day of The Last Tale of the Flower Bride readalong! Grab a snack (or a few!) and let’s dive in and see what happens!
Today we’re reading from Chapter 27 to the end of the book.
Grab a snack, get comfy and let’s read!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi, from chapter 27 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you’ve finished The Last Tale of the Flower Bride!
-!SPOILERS!-
Indigo grows increasingly threatening when she loses the game with the Bridegroom… until she starts to sway and realises the Bridegroom put something in her wine.
In the past, Azure tells Indigo she’s not ready to transform and leave the mortal world behind. Indigo doesn’t seem too angry, but when they toast to trying something new, Azure realises she’s been drugged.
Indigo tells Azure she has a gift for her that she’s worked really hard on and they both enter the Otherworld, but Azure tells us she didn’t come out.
Indigo catches The Bridegroom, but when he sees the blue-eyed starling on the corpse, he realises. Indigo in the present day, is not Indigo, but Azure. Azure never died, Indigo did.
The glass casket was Indigo’s present for Azure. When she spoke of transformations it was not a physical transformation, but an ending. Indigo lunges and falls. Instead of taking Azure’s offered hand to be helped up, Indigo grabs her hair to pull her down with her. But it’s not her hair, it’s the fake hair Tati gave her.
When Azure returns to the graduation party, people think she is Indigo. She tries to tell Tati what she’s done, but even Tati seems to be confusing her for Indigo… and even Azure herself is convinced that she is many things, but not Azure.
Azure lets the Bridegroom go… but leaving her feels too much like the memory of leaving his brother, and he returns to her.
Back at the house, he asks Azure to tell him her story. There are no more secrets between them, and Azure tells him the first thing he must understand is that she loved Indigo.
What an ending! I am SHOOK!
Did you see that coming? I honestly really didn’t! I thought this would just be a bit of murder mystery, what did Indigo do? Not an eerie, person swap thing! So good!
What would you rate this book?
Would you recommend it to a friend?
What was your fave part of the book?
Thank you so much for joining us on our very first Adult readalong! See you very soon for the next one!
Love,
Shannon
Indigo’s audacity of forcing Azure into her Catskins fairytale was, even for her, jarring. I had suspected that Azure had taken Indigo’s place early on though never under what circumstances. A few times, I even flipped back to those earliest chapters to compare things (like how the smell of apples seemed a cheap cover over her true scent). The choice of dual POV characters makes more sense though. The fact that there was death instead of the Otherworld holding those lost characters is sad but not unexpected. There was a happy ending of sorts, but I can’t say it’s what I expected. Then again, I was never sure what to expect from this book from the start: I went in blind, waited with half-baked theories for the largest missing pieces of the puzzle to be revealed, & ended with a bittersweet confusion of how I felt about everything by the end.
Daily Q&A:
Q:
1.) What would you rate this book?
2.) Would you recommend it to a friend?
3.) What was your fave part of the book?
A:
1.) 4-stars
2.) Yes
3.) The references to & stories about mythology/fairytales/folklore.
Even though I though it was a possibility I was shocked! I really didn’t think it would go quite like this. Most of the book I was like this is okay, but the ending actually made it much better, and I ended up giving it 3,75⭐️. And I would recommend it to those who like these type of books. Thanks for a fun readalong!
I’d been wondering if they’d switched because Indigo wouldn’t go to Tati and I wondered if it was because Tati could smell the difference between the two girls and she’d know she wasn’t Indigo. BUT, then Tati seemed to lose it so that threw me off. Twisty twisty.
The whole thing was basically about how people try to escape their realities. The bridegroom grew up in an abusive household and told himself he lost his brother to Faerie because he couldn’t face the truth. Azure wanted to escape into Indigo’s Otherworld because of the strained relationship she had with her mother and Jupiter, and then ultimately used Indigo to live the life she wanted and had access to travel, etc.
I enjoyed Azure’s chapters soo much more than the bridegroom’s, though they fitted together really well by the end. Overall I found it slow but beautiful, but would recommend.
This book did not work well for me. I would give it a two cause the mixing of the fairy tales, the mystery about the bridegroom wife, the two girls and the house of dreams all were elements that interested me. What did not work was the way indigo told azure to let jupiter do what he wanted with her, the way she tricked her mom into thinking he had, the manipulation gave me such a creepy feeling. I wanted to shake azure and tell her to wake up.. I hated indigo so much. The cover from fairy loot is gorgeous though. Sadly not a huge fan of this one.
I really enjoyed this and would rate 4 stars and I will be recommending this to people. My fave part was how I think we can interpret things in our own way and how much space the author has left us to do so. Are Azure and Indigo actually joined as one soul now? If she doesn’t think she’s Azure anymore but Indigo is gone then maybe? Was there ever anything more magical to the Otherworld than just their imaginations? Again, I think this is open to interpretation and for us to decide what we think.
I also like how it has a hopeful ending. Or that’s how I chose to read it.
Top pick Fairyloot and thanks for hosting the read-along.
I picked the swap between Azure and Indigo, and tbh I’m glad that ‘Indigo’ turned out to be Azure, because Indigo was the one, of the two girls, who wouldn’t do well in the real world…among other reasons of course.
I rated this 4.5 stars. I think it would take
-cont- a particular type of reader for me to want to recommend this book. I really liked the way the two worlds were juxtaposed against each other, and each started to unravel together
I loved this ending! I had guessed it from the prologue (that they would live happily ever after) but had my doubts throughout the book.
I agree with Chrys that it’s sad that The Otherworld ended up being death for them both but especially for The Bridegroom’s brother.
It seems fitting that two people who shared so much repressed pain from their childhood should end up together.
As far as Indigo, though, she had it coming. I really hated her manipulative treatment of Azure especially with Lyric and Jupiter. (And more kudos to Roshani for such cool names!)
I would rate this book 5 Stars! The amount of research Roshani easily incorporated into the story, the dual POV with an alternating timeline, and the beautiful prosaic writing earns her top honors in my humble opinion and I will definitely recommend it to fellow readers!
My favorite part, besides the ending, was watching Azure experience those little pieces of independence away from Indigo and become her own person. I’m glad my guess that somehow she took over Indigo’s life and was able to travel, live a wealthy lifestyle, and found happiness was how the story ended!
Thank you for hosting this first adult book readalong! I really enjoyed it and look forward to joining again! Especially for March’s book!
I did and didn’t see it coming haha. On another day someone had theorised that Indigo was actually Azure. It made me think and I did see the possibility of that being true, so when it was revealed to be so it didn’t came as such a shock. I did like how it was something unexpected in the end.
1. In the end I’ll rate it 3.5 stars out of 5
2. Depends on which friend and their reading preferences. I think I’d sooner recommend other books though, because I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted and a lot of the book confused me.
3. I liked the references to mythology and folklore the best. I also really liked that the House of Dreams was like a character in itself.
This book was so messed up! Indigo was pure evil. Manipulative, toxic, and she never saw consequences for her actions. What she did to Azure with Jupiter was absolutely disgusting. Not surprising, but disgusting. Everything was for control. I don’t understand how Azure could love her. She was so evil from day 1! I’m glad their souls weren’t entwined and the ending was just a confirmation that Indigo was indeed insane and mentally ill. I probably wouldn’t recommend this to a friend. It wasn’t magical at all, it was just manipulative. Sorry, it just wasn’t for me. The writing was good so I’d give it a 3/5 but it’s not something I’d ever read again. I hated Indigo and I’m mad that everyone fell for her tricks and deception. If I was the bridegroom I’d still hightail it outta there even though it’s Azure at the end. Azure is still twisted in some ways.
What would you rate this book?
I rated this book 4 stars.
Would you recommend it to a friend?
Yes I would. I would recommend a reread of it as well because I feel like there were pieces I may have missed.
What was your fave part of the book?
I liked the ending. Despite the history coming out they stuck together.
What would you rate this book?
I rated this book 4 stars.
Would you recommend it to a friend?
Yes I would. I would recommend a reread of it as well because I feel like there were pieces I may have missed.
What was your fave part of the book?
I liked the ending. Despite the history coming out they stuck together. It was a nice ending to an eerie book.
I saw part of it coming. I suspected that she was really Azure, as I noted in my last comment. I did not think it happened the way it did thought. I didn’t think Azure would’ve killed Indigo in cold blood and I knew Indigo was capable of darkness, but I also did not think she wanted to die together in the otherworld – to they could be there together-forever. Indigo had a lot of issues and she was obsessed with Azure.
I rate it 4/5 stars only because I wanted a bit more story after we learned the truth. I was hoping to learn more about the Bridegroom at the end as well – like his name. I would recommend this book to a friend and my favorite part was the different perspectives.
I knew it, Indigo was really Azure. I rated this book 4 or 4.5 starts, I just finished it so I would have to think about it. I would recommend this book to my friends and followers on instagram. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t like Indigo, she was so selfish, toxic and manipulative. What she did to Azure was absolutely horrible. I was happy to see that Indigo at the end was really Azure because I liked the Bridegroom and at least his wife is not the toxic real Indigo.
I know I am super late to the party (I just read this book) but has no one mentioned the bridegroom’s name is never revealed? What’s with that?