In the Coils of the Snake: Book III -- The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy

Book three is likely the best of them all. This draws our adventure of the mysterious Hollow Kingdom to a satisfying close. The author seemed notably more comfortable with herself and the tales and maybe it was that the first two books gave her great practice to make a nearly faultless final adventure. Following the death of Marak, Catspaw takes his place as king, preparing to marry Miranda, a human girl raised to be Catspaw's wife by Marak himself. But things quickly don't go as planned when elves return to the kingdom and an offer of an elvish bride pushes Catspaw to renig on his promise to Miranda. Miranda flees the kingdom once she is aware that she's being set aside and all that she was raised to do was for naught. The tales takes a spinning trail through Miranda's plight as she leaves the goblins and finds the elves... or rather the elf lord finds her. Either way, this book certainly redeemed the whole saga with its climatic ending and surprising and pleasant twists. Had the ending of this book not been so gratifying, it would have suffered a lower score. Readers may find Marak Catspaw and Nir the elf lord too irrational for their own good and that in itself causes much conflict between the two races. What also made this book enjoyable was the underlying hint of racism and prejudices. The elves think the goblins barbaric and vice versa. Both peoples saw themselves as the better race and saw all faults and weaknesses only in their enemy. Five bright stars for closing the story of the Hollow Kingdom with a bang. Dunkle proved her mettle in this book and she may just find a niche as popular fantasy writer alongside Sharon Shinn and Robin McKinley.

Great series. I bought the entire series for my daughter for her birthday. It is a fantasy series with goblins, fairies, humans and magic. Told from the perspective of the goblins. One of my favorite series to read.

My teenage daughter ordered this; she said, "This was an excellent ending for the trilogy; I enjoyed it. The story was faster paced and a little more intense than the previous two; I was engaged the whole way through. It also has multiple points of view that give you a satisfactory final view of this world. It's a very creative world. Our library has copies of all three, but I enjoyed them enough and checked them out so often I decided I needed copies for myself. There are a few scary elements, and it's designed for an older teen audience, but I loved it."

(3.5 stars) The third book in the Hollow Kingdom series occurs takes place when Marak, the Goblin King introduced in the first book, is now nearing his death. In order to prepare for the future, he has groomed a human girl named Miranda, to be the King's Wife. His son, Marak Catspaw is faced with a difficult choice when after his father's death, they are visited by a group of elves whose leader offers him one of the women as his wife in return for access to the elvish books in possession of the goblins. Unable to turn down a marriage to a highly magical elf, Catspaw tells Miranda that she cannot be his wife. Devastated by the news, Miranda runs away and finds herself captured by the elves, with a spell on her so she can no longer bear the sunlight. Miranda and the new goblin queen each have vastly different circumstances to deal with, along with many misconceptions. As the two sides try to work out their differences and prejudices, it is unclear if the truce can be held or if war is imminent. This was an interesting conclusion to the series with a bit of a twist, but upholding the central theme of things being more than they initially seem, the folly of prejudice, and the art of cooperation and adaptation.

I read these books back when I was in middle school, I loved them immediately and they sparked my love of literature and folklore. I found the first two books in my boxes of books and re-read them, but found I didn't have the third: so I bought it. They definitely have something to say still and tugged at my heart once again.

Love the series. Book came undamaged.

I was worried about this book and unsure what direction the plot would go in but it turned out perfect

I love this series and was happy to finally get a story about the elves. I honestly think these stories should be more popular; this is one of the few series I have gone back to read more than once. I wish there were more of them.

I hated the fact that the heroine is bewitched into obeying all the orders of the hero even if it's for her protection. Basically she is forced into marriage and not seeing the sun again and she is ordered around, she protests a little and then convince herself that she doesn't mind, that finally it's her choice or that it's done for her own good. The rest of the characters and the plot didn't interest me either.