Sentinel brings lackluster end to series

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of reluctance when you begin the last novel in a series you have devoted much time too. Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Sentinel is no different.

Armentrout, a New York Times best-selling author, now offers her fans Sentinel, the fifth and final installment of the Covenant series, which is as heartbreaking as it is physically draining to read. Sentinel tells the story of Alexandra “Alex” Andros who prepares for war against the god Ares. With all of the troubles that Alex and her boyfriend, Aiden St. Delphi, faced to be together in the previous installments, the two now journey through the Underworld to release and defeat one of the most dangerous gods of their time.

And while Sentinel finishes the series with an emotional bang, there is too much reliance on romance and not enough action in between to call this a complete success.

What works is Armentrout’s vivid imagination. The world she creates throughout the entire series, and especially in Sentinel, is something to admire. Armentrout manages to convey the imaginary world with incredible restraint. When Armentrout describes the Underworld and how it makes Alex feel, there aren’t copious flowery adjectives and adverbs that force the reader to feel a certain way. Instead, the author graciously allows the reader to determine his or her own emotions through Alex’s actions, an effective tactic she utilizes throughout the entire story.

Another element of Sentinel that works well are the plot twists and use of foreshadowing, which can manipulate the reader (albeit in the best way possible). Armentrout is quick to add a twist that brings attention to a plot point from the beginning of the series that can connect all five of the novels in a logical manner. Unfortunately, Armentrout did not include such a twist until the last part of the novel.

The late-arriving plot twists kept the story from being predictable. But often times with fantasy series, such as Sacrifice of Love from The Grey Wolves series,”the last book takes the entire novel to get to any action that provides any type of external conflict. And Sentinel, unfortunately, falls prey to such a custom.

The fact that Armentrout also writes New Adult fiction, romance books geared toward the age group of 18 through 25, could give her some leeway regarding why this book relied heavily on the romance to keep the novel progressing. The first four books in the Covenant series provided enough external conflict throughout to progress the story without overdoing the romance angle. But for some reason, Sentinel doesn’t have that luxury.

Aiden and Alex’s relationship at the start of the series had a lot more depth, as they were fighting their feelings for each other in a world where the rules forbade them from being together. But outside of those rules, the two also had their own individual issues that affected the world outside of each other outside of their relationship. Now that they have declared their love for each other by the final book, there wasn’t much conflict outside of their journey through the Underworld, which made their dialogue cheesy and didn’t move the story along. The majority of their interactions in Sentinel consist of Aiden watching out for Alex and acting as her protector, which got old after a while.

Though romance can be a selling point, especially in today’s popular fiction, Armentrout usually steers clear of suggestive romance scenes and cheesy dialogue to sell her stories, like in her other fantasy series, Lux. The worst part is that these romance scenes often don’t tell us anything new about the characters, instead coming across as pointless and repeating what the reader already knows. It was clear by book three, Deity, that Aiden loved Alex, and crystal clear that Aiden would do anything for Alex’s benefit in book four, Apollyn. What else was there to make clear by the final book? With the lack of tension between the two characters, the reader didn’t need any wordy reiterations in nearly every single chapter, which is what literally filled the pages until the last third of the novel. Plus, there was not enough external conflict to make up for it.

But even with all the redundant love scenes and a lack of action to progress the story, there is still a sadness that comes with ending a series. Seeing the characters develop on the page until their journey is over is a journey of its own; one that leaves you feeling a little empty, yet peaceful in spite of the outcome.

And with Sentinel, this feeling is  no different.

 

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