57. 
Title: Thirteen
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Pages: 464
Genre: Supernatural
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Preordered
Date Completed: July 29, 2012
Rating: *****

Kelley Armstrong is one of the stronger urban fantasy authors I have had the pleasure to read.  Unlike some authors, who find themselves laden with too many characters and too little plot as a series continues, Armstrong has no difficulty picking and choosing protagonists for individual novels, and leaving others behind.  For this reason, the series never really becomes stale, and while I prefer certain character sets as a reader, I can appreciate Armstrong's efforts with the series as a whole.

Armstrong has said on Twitter that she always intended the Otherworld series to finish with thirteen books, and so presents Thirteen as the conclusion.  In this installment a great deal of resolution is offered, in largely satisfactory ways.  The conflicts are consistent with the rest of the series, and the characters remain consistent, so the development of the novel will likely appease longtime fans of the series.

As an added bonus, Armstrong revisits the beginning of the series in a prologue, and offers an epilogue for a nicely circular narrative.

I would likely rate this book as a single volume at a 4 or even a 4.5, but Armstrong is bumped to a five for consistency and strong management of the series as a whole.