She forms some long lasting bonds in this book, and though she was always prepared for the worst, that her friends would abandon her, realise she wasn’t worth the risk, seeing her come to realise that they trusted her, valued her insight (crazy as it can be), that they wanted to be her friend made El (as well as me) a little emotional in parts. She’s still the grumpy, standoffish person I fell in love with from the first book, but Novik did a wonderful job of showing her lowering her defences, while still ensuring she stayed the unapologetic, take no prisoners, kick ass female we all know and love. I really enjoyed seeing El’s character growth in this book. But what El doesn’t realise is that the school has been sending the Mal’s her way for a reason, one that when it comes to light, will shake up the Scholomance and the world of magic forever. Sick of using up her hard earned Mana fighting off all the Mals the school has been sending her way, El decides to do the one thing she hates… asking for help. Only now the school seems to be punishing her for it. With the help of her allies, El managed to fix the equipment in the graduating hall, meaning for the first time in years a good portion of the class would have survived. Ok, so this book broke me and if you thought the cliff hanger ending to book one was bad then this book will destroy you! The Last Graduate picks up pretty much straight after the ending of A Deadly Education. I received a free copy of the book from the publisher & can confirm all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The graduate book naomi