Book Review: One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (Electra McDonnell #5)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Mission is good (when we focus on it), series ends satisfactorily

Cons: The romance really bugs me (still)

The Bottom Line:

Personal mission

As series comes to a close

Romance is still bad

I Expected This Ending.  But That Doesn’t Mean I Liked It

I was anxious to pick up One Final Turn.  As the title suggested, this is the final book in the Electra McDonnell series from Ashley Weaver.  Because of the various cliffhangers we got at the end of book four, I needed to know how things were going to work out.  Sadly, they ended about where I thought they would.

If you’ve missed this series, this isn’t the best place to start.  After all, it is wrapping up storylines we’ve been following since book one.  But a brief introduction: Electra “Ellie” McDonnell is a safe cracker and lock pick in World War II London.  She’s been recruited to work in the war efforts under Major Ramsey, who is in British intelligence.  While she can’t stand the man, she’s also fallen in love with him.  Over the course of the series, Ellie’s also worked on a personal project – figuring out what happened to her father during the first world war.  He was murdered and her mother accused of the crime, but Ellie doesn’t believe it.  Meanwhile, her cousin has been taken captive by the Germans.

And this book opens as Ellie is getting ready to head to Portugal.  The country is neutral, and it is where people are expecting her cousin to head now that he’s rumored to have escaped.  The hope is that they can rescue these escapees and gain information on the route they took to escape, keeping it open for others.  While Major Ramsey is also on the mission, he isn’t in charge, which is a good thing since he has recently fired Ellie.  But once they’ve arrived, will they be able to get beyond the tension between them to complete their mission?

As far as the mission went, I was frustrated by the first half.  I felt like the same thing was happening repeatedly.  We weren’t really getting anywhere until the second half of the book.

Instead, the story was truly focused on Ellie and Ramsey’s relationship.  If you’ve been reading my reviews, you know that is my least favorite aspect of the series.  It is just bad.  Their relationship up to this point has been a good working relationship but a toxic romance.  Nothing in this book changed my mind in the slightest, unfortunately.  In some ways, it was worse.

Fortunately, when we got into the second half of the book, the mission really picked up.  I was fully on board with the twists and surprises we got along the way.

And I do think fans who have followed the series so far will be satisfied with the ending we get here.  That includes the resolution to the story about Ellie’s parents.

While the romance may have irritated me, there was still enough that I enjoyed here that I’m not sorry I picked up One Final Turn.  Those who have been reading the series will be glad they stuck with it.

Here are the rest of the Electra McDonnell Novels.