"It hurts every day, the absence of someone who was once there." 

Wow…! This is one of my favorite feelings as a bookworm when I just look back at the beginning of the series and realize how far have those characters (I included, ha) have gotten. Marie Lu did such an amazing job with Legend, each book better than the last one, pulling me slowly into her world and characters until I started to care for them without even knowing it. 

I just have to say, that I did not expect to like this book so much. After reading first two books, which were just okay, I expected the third one to be equally unimpressive or just a bit better, but I am so in love with whatever Lu did this time. 

First of all, character development. I've never felt particularly drawn to any of the characters, but Lu's slow and subtle pacing of their development and growth turned them from naïve kids to people who have been through so much. They have all matured so much and I was surprised how some small, seemingly irrelevant details of their backstories meant so much after some time has passed.

 I liked June's character before, and now that her qualities were only confirmed and developed further. I really enjoyed reading from her perspective. She found her place in the Republic and let herself prosper without Day, finding her passions and interests in life. My favorite scene in the whole book was her encounter with commander Jameson. I felt like the tension between June's former commander and June was building and their conflict was inevitable. She still felt a strange sense of fear and urge to impress her (she mentioned that she can never get herself together around Jameson), but she got over her fears and demons and I can't seem to express how much I love where Lu took her characters.

Anden Primo is the shiniest precious perfect cinnamon roll that has ever existed in the history of a fictional character. He was supposed to have a role of a side character/another love interest for June/third weel in a love triangle, but he has won my heart completely. Young, ambitious elector surrounded by vultures who want him off his position. He has inherited a state in a terrible condition and all his best intentions to create a better place to live might go in vain because, well, he is in middle of a war. My heart broke every time he had to keep his emotions at bay in order to make a difficult, morally questionable decision and he is 100% best character of these series.

And I'll just skip to Day, there are other semi-important characters, of course, but they just didn't make an impression and I don't have to say anything about them xd So, I actually like Day's background and character development, the way he cares for his family deeply and wants to do anything to protect his brother, his passion for fight against government and to protect people. But I was deeply annoyed by his character and for one reason only. The "legend" part of his character was a bit too forced and unrealistic. Okay, I get it, he is people's hero, but his constant "if everyone doesn't do as I say I'll turn people against you" childish outbursts were too just much.

If I had to pick the best part of this trilogy it would probably be romance. I mentioned in my review for Prodigy that I didn't like them a couple, and I would like to take that back and murder myself from four days ago. Their story was so thoroughly and precisely developed, from the beginning Lu watched every detail and used it to create an amazing love story behind reader's back. Facts and details that seemed banal and simple at the time turned out to be genius. How their positions in society and backstories affected their feelings and mistakes they made in past that got into their path (especially the fact that June was responsible, in some way, for death of Day's mother. I wasn't bothered by that fact at all, but it was so damn important for their relationship!). And that ending… uwu. Now I can say with absolute certainty that Marie Lu is the queen of bitter-sweet endings. I expected nothing more than fluffy boring happily ever after ending, but this was so damn good. *spoilers for ending* I got suddenly really interested in June and Day's relationship as soon as I saw where that was going. It was really cute and heartbreaking at the same time and I had to grab Life after Legend right away because it really gave me that familiar ache of an emotional finish. I was thinking to give this book more than 3.5 stars, but only because of this ending it got a well-deserved 4-star rating.

"I've been searching a long time for something I think I lost.

I felt like I found something when I saw you back there." 

A weaker part of Champion was the plot. The last book in the trilogy certainly had more action than previous two, but it still wasn't enough. I felt like there wasn't much going on except political intrigue, which was really good but I said a lot about that in my review for Prodigy. For the most part, I resent lack of action in the final battle. *spoiler* It could have been turned into a really tense battle for Republic, but instead, it was a few bombs and the rest was just mentioned in Epilogue like it didn't matter.

All in all, this was a really emotional journey and I feel no regrets for reading these books. I would recommend it to anyone with the tendency towards dystopian stories. Books aren't too long to read and it only gets better 😊

"Hi," he says. "I'm Daniel."

"Hi," I reply. "I'm June."