Untamed (Splintered #1.5, 3.5)

*Originally reviewed on Goodreads and My Blog* OMG! This one was my favorite! This is a novella telling of things that happened within the books. I loved it so freaking much! First we have the families all together and then we have Alyssa\’s mom (Alison) telling her story of when she was little and met Morpheus and the things she went through. Now I\’m not giving out any spoilers so don\’t worry. We also get to read about what happened, in depth, to Alyssa\’s father when he was young. And finally we get to read about what happened after the last book. I will admit that it made me cry but you all know I cry in books all of the time so this is nothing new! It was just so wonderful and some sadness but mostly it was wonderful! It\’s so bizarre to me how I can love this book more than the original trilogy, but it\’s not one to read before the other three. If you do that it will ruin the first three books. I think it was just the wrapping up of all that happened and getting to look into what happened after and a few other things that were told in the books. Either way, I loved it and I\’m happy ♥

This book is a collection of three ebook novellas (The Boy in the Web, The Moth in the Mirror, and Six Impossible Things). Some authors of YA novels love to release these as the series progresses to give their readers some background information on certain characters or to give readers insight into what happened after the supposed Happily ever after ending. The first novella, The Boy in the Web, follows Allison (Alyssa’s mother) when she was a teenager attempting to retrieve the red crown and rule the Red Court. It gives more detail into Allison’s motives for going after the crown and why she let go of the desire when she encountered Alyssa’s father. Given Allison’s background, a reader can understand why she wanted the crown so badly. When she let go of the dream to rescue Alyssa’s father, that proved her strength of character. I didn’t approve of Allison not telling her daughter of Wonderland. Since she knew Morpheus’s unique character, she would know that it was only a matter of time before his plans affected Alyssa. What’s the cliched saying? Forewarned is forearmed. Although, half the things that happened in the trilogy would never have occurred if Alyssa was already warned. Not to mention, she would never fall for Morpheus. The second novella, The Moth in the Mirror, gives us insight into Morpheus’s feelings when he had to wait for Alyssa mortal life to end. I knew Morpheus would never let go of his dislike for Jeb after all they’ve been through together. It’s good to see Morpheus showing some real emotions instead of fake emotions designed to get a desired response from someone he’s attempting to manipulate. While Morpheus was my favorite love interest over Jeb, it was a little frustrating that the author was stingy with any of his real emotions. This particular story brings the readers into Morpheus’s budding plot to ruin Alyssa and Jeb’s relationship so Alyssa will start her rule in Wonderland sooner than anticipated. To do that, he sneaks a peak at Jeb’s lost memories to help form his plan. Morpheus did gain some humanity when he turned himself into a child and grew up with Alyssa, but that didn’t mean he knew what it was like to be human. Trekking through Jeb’s memories gave him that experience and ultimately showed him that sabotaging the loving relationship between Alyssa and Jeb would be the worst thing he ever did. I enjoyed this novella, it gave more depth into Morpheus than I received from the series. The last novella in the book rounded out the character for me. The third novella, Six Impossible Things, showed readers what happened after the Happily ever after between Alyssa and Morpheus. It begins with a basic rundown of Alyssa’s human life with Jeb, her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I like how Howard didn’t sugarcoat Alyssa’s human life. It lends a bit of reality even though this is a fiction book. She does, however, give a happy ending to Alyssa and Morpheus. They’re immortal, he’s suffered for many years, and they deserve it. It’s also a sweetly fun way to discover how Morpheus handles childbirth. This is where we get to see the two be vulnerable with each other, which is slightly un-Wonderlandish of them. Yet, their in a relationship so they get a pass. Overall, I enjoyed all three novellas. Howard ties up the loose ends nicely, and she leaves it open for a new book or series. Of course it’s on my bookshelf because I like it and the series would be incomplete without it.

**spoilers for Splintered, Unhinged, and Ensnared ahead** This was a fun little extra for fans of the Splintered series. I had already read Moth In The Mirror when it originally released and really enjoyed it. So with Untamed, I only read The Boy In The Web and Six Impossible Things. I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Boy In The Web. This one is told from Alison’s (Alyssa’s Mom) point of view and I just don’t love Alison. She has never been my favorite. This one also didn’t really give us anything new; we all kinda knew this already. It was a fun read but I was a bit meh on it. As for Six Impossible Things, this one was fun and was what I was looking for from Untamed. This story dove into six of Alyssa’s memories; three with Jeb and three with Morpheus. The Jeb ones were okay but I ADORED the Morpheus ones. If I’m being honest, those memories are what I was most looking for out of these novellas. I wanted to see some more Morpheus and Alyssa and I wanted a peek into their happily ever after. I will forever love Morpheus and I ate up every bit of his presence. So all in all, Untamed was a fun little trip back to Wonderland for fans of the series.

5 stars for the short story \”Six Impossible Things\” I didn\’t find the other two stories, \”The Boy in the Web\” and \”The Moth in the Mirror\”, to be that interesting. This might be because I was just so unbelievably curious to find out what happened with Alyssa and Morpheus. So the other two stories balanced out the 5 star into a solid 3/5. \”Six Impossible Things\”, though was incredible. Though Jeb was never a favorite of mine, learning about his and Alyssa\’s life together at the moment he passed through the veil made me CRY. I CRIED! My heart hurt for Alyssa, to have loved him so much and to lose him. Then to lose all of her other family too. The author worked that very well and it was poignant and emotional. Her life with Morpheus was very fairytale-perfect as you\’d expect it to be. I actually thought that Alyssa\’s experience with Jeb was probably more meaningful because she knew she would lose him and he knew he would lose her and they loved each other with as much as they could before that happened. Morpheus is, of course, soppily in love with Alyssa and the two of them have passionate sexy times all-the-time (which is worth a bit of an eye roll, but hey, this is Fantasy). Morpheus showed his sweet side and I fell more in love with the kooky little sprites (Chessie will always be my favorite) with every passing moment. It\’s really a \”best of both worlds\” scenario which makes Alyssa probably the luckiest character to ever exist. Anyway, the combination of the 3 stories (one being completely awesome and the other two being \”bleh\”) make this a 3/5 for me. End of a series and I say: Not bad A.G. Howard. Not bad at all.

bought for my daughter who likes this author and fantasy style

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