The Finish Line: The Ravenhood Series

 October 21st, 2023

Review #4

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"I'm glad that you loved him, and I am glad that he knew what it felt like to be loved by you before he died, and it's because of the way you love Cecilia."

-Kate Stewart, Tobias King; The Finish Line (Ravenhood Series #3)

"Let's finish this. For us. For Dom."

-Kate Stewart, Tobias King; The Finish Line (Ravenhood Series #3)

Dear Reader,

How are doing? Have you been able to stop crying since the loss of our beloved Dark French Prince? Are his last words to Cecilia playing in your head? Are you emotionally and mentally scarred forever? You are? Welcome to the pain that is the Ravenhood Series. Buckle up because this ride, isn't over yet.

From the moment Dominic died, to the moment that Cecilia was forced to flee Triple Falls, and leave Sean, and Tobias, and her lifeless Prince behind, things were never the same for Cecilia. She had to piece her life back together. The update that she was promised? She never received. She never heard from Sean, she never heard from Tobias, and she never got to say her final goodbye to Dominic. She fled Triple Falls, broken, and nothing resembling a human being. Cecilia was just a shell. But slowly, she started to come back. Not the same, but someone new, someone she felt she had to be. 

Cecilia ends up going to college and getting her degree, becoming this badass cut-throat business woman. People fear her in the business world, for all the reasons one should. This woman takes no prisoners. She's lethal. She even study abroad in Paris. But watching her go through that hurt, more than I thought it would. Because you know that everywhere she went, she was looking for him. For Tobias.

Seven Years! Seven long years, it has been since she had even thought about Triple Falls. Set to marry another man, Cecilia runs out on her wedding, and runs back to Triple Falls, to sell her father's company. 

I always knew that Cecilia would have to go back, but I didn't think that she would ever set foot in that Mansion again. But she's on a mission, for answers. And she's not leaving until she gets them.

Now when we left off on the Exodus review, I told you, that I was not a fan of Tobias, and I certainly wasn't a fan of the love square that was Tobias, Cecilia, Sean, and Dominic.

In Exodus, Sean and Dominic were exiled for a year, by Tobias, for lying to him and for choosing to bring Cecilia in when they had promised a long time ago, that she never would, she was supposed to be a innocent in all of this. I really don't think that was the reason why Tobias, sent away Sean and Dominic. I was right. The real reason he sent them away was to punish them. Because Cecilia loved them, was loyal to them, and they loved her, and put her above Tobias and everything else. But when push came to shove, they chose Tobias over Cecilia because of guilt. 

See, Sean and Dominic, felt that Tobias was right, that they had betrayed him. But really all they did was fall in love. Tobias was insanely jealous of this love because, he wasn't the one receiving it. So, he sent Sean and Dominic away, and then started to punish Cecilia, for loving Sean and Dominic and not him. 

And this is where I start to realize that my hatred for Tobias, was justified....

See, he couldn't be like a normal guy and earn her love and affection. And at the time that this is happening, Cecilia is only 20 years old okay. She's barely out of her teens. He couldn't be the guy to earn her love and affection and respect, he was like a sick demented man, and just took it from her. Basically, forcing her to feel a certain way for him. Maybe, it's the pure female stubbornness in me, that just won't allow me to think like Cecilia or even act like her, but I would never let a man take anything from me, I would never let a man force anything upon me, even if there was an attraction between us. The way he treated her in the beginning was sickening. Tobias was a straight piece of garbage for that. NO, I will not take that back. 

 But then you know, here comes the moment when he realizes he was just jealous of Sean and Dominic and realizes that he does in fact have feelings for her. He's not wanting to dominate just because Sean and Dominic claimed her first. He's got genuine feelings for her. He's in love with her, and we get to this moment where Cecilia and Tobias are wrapped up in each other, and who should catch Tobias professing his feelings for her? Sean and Dominic. Talk about fucking karma, but also at the same time, my heart breaks for Sean and Dominic.

Going back to The Finish Line, it is seven years after losing Dominic, and Sean and Tobias, and forced to flee Triple Falls, that Cecilia goes back to sell her father's company and mansion. In seven years, Cecilia has changed from the young naive girl, who loved 3 men, to a cut-throat business woman, who cuts the balls off and hands them to men. 

 When she goes to sign her father's company over to its new owner, she realizes who the company belongs to, and refuses to sign or leave the building until Tobias faces her. Finally seeing Tobais face to face has her re-thinking a few things before signing over the company, she sticks around to reform it and to get under Tobias's skin. 

But the Tobias, she is dealing with seven years later is not the Tobias, she knew or loved seven years ago. This Tobias doesn't want to be anywhere near her, and wants her to leave Triple Falls, immediately. But Cecilia wants what Cecilia wants. And it's not until she gets rip roaring drunk and meets Tobias's new girl does she get the hint to move on. But Cecilia has one last pit stop to make before she leaves...

Alfred Sean Roberts....

It's like no time had passed at all. It's like she's looking at him, and she's still that young girl that fell in love with him. Nothing about him has changed, except that he's a little older, and losing his best friend, is a scar he wears. You look at Sean through her eyes, and your suddenly thinking, why did it all have to change? Why couldn't it be Cecilia and Sean and Dominic forever? 

So much has changed for Sean in 7 years though, he's now a husband and a father, and for the most part, stays away from Tobias. (The Sean and Tobias friendship/brotherhood, is severely strained.)Sean gives Cecilia the keys to Dominic's charger and tells her that he would have wanted her to have it. And as she hugs him goodbye, you can tell that she's letting him go. And in a way she's letting Dominic go.

 

 You think that the book would leave off there, and have it end like that, because that would have been a decent ending, but it doesn't. I don't want to give it all away, but Tobias goes after her, to show her, that he loves her and that she is a priority and that he can step away from the Ravens and let Sean run this. It's really not even about Tobias running the ravens. Cecilia never wanted him to give that up, she just wanted to be his equal.

I will tell you this though, these two change the world, but it wouldn't have ever happened without Dominic knowing, that eventually, Cecilia and Tobias would find a way to be together. 

And in the end, they end up finishing what Tobias and Dominic started as boys. Tobias grieves and says goodbye to Dominic, and runs home to Cecilia. 

It's not the man that I wanted Cecilia to end up with, but damn it if Tobias doesn't bring out the Queen in her. No, I'm still not sold on Tobias. I don't think I will ever be, maybe cause I'm more of a Dominic Girl. But its the ending this series deserved and the ending Cecilia earned.