“I understand that you’ve lost something— a lot of things— but you’re still the same person. I know, because I loved you then, and I love you now, and I know that’s not enough to make you happy— to make anyone happy— but you’re the same person, Simon. You’re still you.”
”It’s enough,” he finally grumbles.
”What is,” I whisper.
”The fact that you love me. It does make me happy.”
The group is back from their wild adventure in America and they are all a little worse for wear. Penelope has smuggled home a cursed normal, Simon is still in shambles since losing the madge and his magic, Baz is trying not to think too much about the up rise of the American vampires while attempting to salvage his relationship with Simon and Agatha never wants to be left defenseless again.
After being unceremoniously dismissed by her headmaster mother, Penelope set out to break the curse herself. Baz and Simon are investigating the various new “chosen ones” popping up, their interest piqued by one who promises to restore and build magic in the weak. And Agatha is learning more about the Watford goats than she ever expected.
When Carry On came out, I loved the concept of that book—they idea that it was written as the fanfiction story written in Fangirl really excited me and Carry On really was a cute story. The concept obviously changed as Carry On became the flagship of the Simon Snow series, I honestly think that took something away from it—it removed it’s overarching purpose. That being said, I was unimpressed with “Wayward Son”, I felt it focused too much on Simon’s obvious depression with out doing anything about it, whether that be alleviating it or pushing him deeper into it. It felt stagnant. BUT, I felt Any Way The Wind Blows was a good redemption. The characters all had an opportunity to grow and did so individually and not as a pod, but at the same time came back together as the people they became and not the kids they were. I think that makes their relationships more organic. I have to admit, I like that it didn’t wrap up all nice and neat. For some reason I am never quite satisfied with the “everyone lived happily every after” endings. I am more a fan of “everyone lived and they may be scarred or changed, but they made it through”.
This book qualifies for my “Rec’d” Bingo Square: Any Way the Wind Blows was always on my list to read, but as these things go, I am often only vaguely aware of when the newest book of a series comes out (with the exception of a few favorites) so I knew I would get around to it eventually—likely when I came across it at the library. However, I saw @Lisa Bee’s review (I know there have been about half a dozen, but hers was the first one I came across) and it put it in the forefront of my mind. I read that the book didn’t do much for her and if you read my review, you would know that the previous book didn’t do much for me, so I was unsurprised by that opinion. However, everyone looks for something different from a book, so I needed to find out for myself. I will admit I was pleased to see our opinions differed because I really didn’t want something I loved so much in the beginning to fizzle out in the end.
