Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #3): Review

Title: Champion
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Penguin Razorbill
Buy This Book: Amazon/Book Depository

The explosive finale to Marie Lu’s New York Times bestselling LEGEND trilogy—perfect for fans of THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT!

He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

Who will be Champion? 

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps Elect while Day has been assigned a high level military position. But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them once again. Just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything he has. With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.(Goodreads summary.)

Champion was a satisfying enough ending to a great series, but not everything I had hoped; if I am completely honest with myself. Champion takes place eight months after the end of Prodigy, and with June training as a Princeps-Elect and Day having moved to San Fransisco with his younger brother Eden, they haven't seen each other since their emotional goodbye in Prodigy. But when a plague outbreak in the Colonies, seemingly caused by the Republics biological weapons, results in the Colonies declaring war unless they are provided with a cure, June must ask for Day's help. They believe Eden is the answer and they need Day's permission, but June knows it's not going to be that easy.

Now this storyline was pretty solid and worked well. There were lots of plot twists and action-packed scenes, whilst providing us with the quieter, more intense exchanges between June and Day that really made this book. This book was a quick read because of how often I found myself having to keep reading and turning the page because I couldn't bear to put it down; I had to find out what would happen next.

I thoroughly enjoyed June and Day in this book, in the scenes where they were together. The romance is downplayed a lot in the first two books and sometimes lacked feeling for me; but in Champion you can feel it one hundred percent. In their first meeting in eight months, you can practically feel the chemistry and sexual tension between them and these exchanges were so well written. Both characters have really matured and you can feel it so much in this book. June feels more real as a character, her cool and calculated approach sometimes made her unlikeable in the first two books but here she shows her true emotions and thoughts and feelings a lot more.

This book does a great job of answering questions that were raised in the first two books. Some questions felt completely ignored and now I can understand why, because they are answered perfectly here. I loved that we got to see what happened the night Metias was killed, that was something I had been very curious about since the first book. I liked that we found out more about how the Republic and Colonies came to be and so much more about what was happening across the world. I wish Allegiant had answered questions as well as this book did.

The only thing that I felt disappointed with and didn't enjoy was the ending. Or the bit before the epilogue to be specific. It felt, to me, like a storyline Joey from Friends would be doing on his soap 'Days of Our Lives' - it seemed that far fetched and ridiculous to me. I am giggling now thinking about it, if I'm honest. This was me:

It was just a little ridiculous and didn't leave me feeling completely satisfied with the ending. But it did wrap things up and give closure on the story, I guess.


This was a satisfying, well written and plotted conclusion to a wonderful series. I may have felt a little unsatisfied with the ending but I still enjoyed the whole book. It was a really great series ender, it didn't disappoint me at all overall, I really loved it as a whole. If you enjoted Legend and Prodigy then have no fear, this is not an Allegiant style series ender, it's a really brilliant conclusion to an amazing series. It had me flipping the page, shocked at some of the plot twists and had me tearing up so bad at the end.

4/5

A satisfying end to the series.