Well, the series didn't exactly end with a bang. I like Lily and Jack enough that it was worth the read, but this particular plot(especially the resolution) didn't do it for me. Felt like she was trying to pack too much into one book and ended up with kind of a haphazard result.

More like a 2.5 star book for me, but I'm rounding up since I liked the series overall, mainly on the strength of the Lily Bard character. ( )

Nothing to write home about. A little boring, a lot predictable. Harris' writing style is still easy going and the plot just interesting enough to keep you reading till the end. Luckily not a long read. ( )

"Shakespeare's Counselor" is the final book in the Lily Bard series. I was surprised to find that I took great pleasure in this series. In some ways it is one long novel, charting Lily's journey from isolated, insomniac, night-walker, to a woman with a life that she has built through her strength, her integrity and finally by being courageous enough to allow herself to have something to lose.

The final book thankfully doesn't go down the path of unlikely happy endings. Bad things happen to Lily in this book and, at the end of it, she still has significant problems, but the book delivers credible growth for her and the people around her.

One of the ways this growth is achieved is that Lily enters therapy, with the Counselor of the title, to try to end the nightmares that rule her sleep. I was surprised at this. I'm not a fan of therapy. I'm with Willy Russel in changing Pschotherapist into Psycho The Rapist. I've never been convinced that the response to trauma should be a platitude-driven talking-tour of the route back to normalcy. I very much doubt that, after a significant trauma, normal is an option.

I was pleased to see that the therapy in the book worked less because of the skill of the counselor, than because the rape survivors in the group were willing to extend their trust and support to each other. There are some hard-to-take tales in therapy sessions. Sadly, none of them are difficult to believe. I was impressed that, even in therapy, Lily did not change her view that people are not naturally good and safety can only be obtained through vigilance and strength. Her counselor found the view bleak and wondered how Lily could live with it. I see it as a reasonable, fact-based conclusion, that provides a foundation for good choices.

The plot of "Shakespeare's Counselor" is a little complex, requiring some suspension of disbelief as the bad guys are not exactly run of the mill. The action is occasionally violent and brutal. The events in Lily's personal life add grief to an already tough situation and challenge Lily's definition of herself and her future.

By the end of the series, Lily has moved from loner cleaner, to an apprentice private detective with a husband and friends in a community that she now feels part of. Yet this is not a "Hallmark" sugar-sweet transformation. This book, even more than the rest of the series, is raised above the mundane by the authenticity of Lily's rage against what was done to her and the strength of her commitment to live her life to her own standards. It's a fine close to a series that I am sure I will read again.

I listened to the audiobook version of this series, performed by Julia Gibson. She did a wonderful job, not just in being "the voice of Lily Bard" but also in creating and sustaining voices for the other characters. She was the perfect choice for these books. ( )

This book was a bit of an upset, for me. I love the character Lily, very much. And I sincerely love that she is furthering her relationship with Jack, her love interest, and is able to hang in there and keep this new relationship afloat, without trying to screw it up (consciously or unconsciously) on purpose. I love that Lily loves Jack. But these new developments in the relationship, and the series, are completely unlike anything the characters would do, in my opinion. I was left wondering WHY.
Then to have her act as she did in this novel seemed.... kinda like the author was taking massive leaps and bounds in her recovery from the past. I don't agree with these changes, I don't think this character, having gone through The Bad Thing, would have done these things, and I was rather put off at the novel because of it all.
Lily would NOT have gone off and married Jack, out of the blue. She suffered from a HUGE inability to have a real relationship, much less taken a giant commitment like this - she is pretty much a commitment-phobe, because of the rape and abuse in the past.
Then the author has the characters say... "well we got married a month ago...." and didn't even write about it?? Or anything? man, that's cruel. The novel seemed to be rather like a car out of control.

Then Lily starts having health problems... and finds out she's pregnant?? that's CRAP. There is no way these newly wedded couple can handle something like that without wanting to at least run away and hide. but they do, AND solve a murder or two, in the process of her recuperation from losing the baby.
A MISCARRIAGE??? Right after getting an implant to stop unwanted pregnancies? And they are SAD they lost it......? I am at a loss. this doesn't seem like the same series it was, in the past three books. I don't know who these people are, anymore.
I must say, having BOTH the couple in question be the Bad Guys, was just the topping on the confusion-cake that is this novel. I was beyond confused, and left feeling very very disappointed and lost. I sincerely hope this problem wasn't caused by the author's writing of three different series at the same time. I am taking a break from them all, and the author, for a while. ( )

I liked the story itself, but the additional series enders were forced and unnecessary. I will never understand why Charlaine Harris cannot end a series without wanting us to understand how the characters fared through serious life situations, but only in the last book. If you want us to see them react to real-world problems, give us those throughout the series. Sad that this is it for Lily as she was one of the better heroines I've read recently. ( )