Book Summary of Finale A Caraval Novel by Stephanie Garber

Check out my full summary of Finale, the final book of the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber. This is just a summary of the main plot points to help you remember and understand my full book review. If you haven’t read the whole book yet, I highly recommend it to get the full details and reading experience. 

You need to read the previous books to understand what’s going on in this third book because it starts right after the end of Legendary. I have a summary and review for the first book, Caraval. And I have a review and recap of the second book, Legendary. 

The Beginning

Chapters 1-5

For two months, Legend appears in Tella’s dreams asking if she wants the prize for winning Caraval, but never apologizes for what he did or touches her. In the latest dream, things suddenly crash and catch fire as Legend tells Tella to wake up, and then he doesn’t visit in dreams anymore. Thinking something’s wrong, Tella sees a disguised Legend in the crowd on the palace, and follows him into ruins in the city. 

Chapters 6-7

The ruins lead to a portal bringing Tella somewhere cold and snowy when she sees Legend following a beautiful woman into a cottage. Eavesdropping below a window, Tella hears Legend say the woman, Esmeralda, is the one who originally captured the Fates in the cards, and now he needs her help again because his magic is growing weaker. Esmeralda tells him that he has to destroy the Fate that made the others, The Fallen Star, and then the others can be killed.

Then, Legend takes the witches powers after he asked to borrow them and carries her out of the cottage. Back in the city, Julian suddenly shows up after a five week errand from Legend as Scarlett is leaving to meet her former fiancé, the Count Nicolas D’Arcy. Julian apologizes for leaving Scarlett and insists of being her chaperone because he doesn’t trust Nicolas, but Scarlett thinks she has no future with Julian as long as he’s one of Legend’s performers.

Chapters 8-9

At Nicolas’s house outside the city, Julian is supposed to say he’s Scarlett’s cousin, but he gets jealous and admits he’s a performer that’s interested in Scarlett. When Julian and Nicolas keep trying to one-up each other, Scarlett suggested they compete in a series of challenges to win her hand in marriage. Julian doesn’t think it should be a game, but both men end up agreeing. 

On the way back to the city, Scarlett stops the carriage when she sees a family in an enchanted sleep around an outdoor table, and on the table Scarlett and Julian find a note from a Fate, the Poisoner. When Julian and Scarlett confess their latest lie according to the note, the family unfreezes but can’t remember who did this. In thanks, the little girl gives Scarlett what she says is a magic key.

Chapters 10-11

When Tella gets back to their apartment, her mother is awake, but when Tella goes to get her food, her mother disappears. Tella follows a trail of magic she can smell outside to one of the ancient ruins where she finds her mother. Her mother tells her to leave the city to escape the Fates before she paralyzes Tella and hides her away. 

Then, a man her mother kisses and calls Gavriel shows up, and says he’s one of the Fates that Paradise trapped in her Deck of Destiny, an enchanted deck of cards. When he kisses her again, Paradise stabs him in the heart, and he stabs her back. Tella still can’t move, and suddenly Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, in behind her. 

Chapters 12-14

As Jacks carries Tella away to his home, he admits that Gavriel is the Fallen Star who’s not really dead and tries to comfort her . Tella is so upset that she lets him and even asks him to take away her sadness using his ability to manipulate emotions. After mixing their blood, Jacks takes on Tella’s sadness and pain himself as Tella kisses him. 

Even as Tella is kissing him she knows she only wants Legend, but she’s too tired and falls asleep next to Jacks. The next morning before Jacks wakes up, Tella runs home to find their apartment torn apart before guards arrest her by order of Prince Dante. 

Chapters 15-16

When Legend comes to see her in the dungeon, he says he didn’t mean for her to be arrested, but he does seem mad when he asks where she was last night. Then, Scarlett and Julian show up, and Tella tells all of them about Paradise and the Fallen Star. Tella repeats that she heard Esmeralda say the Fallen Star can be defeated by the same weakness as Legend, but Legend says it’s no use. 

Then, Jovan, a performer and now guard, comes to tell Legend that the Poisoner turned someone to stone in the city. 

When Tella calls out Legend for not telling his weakness to help them defeat the Fallen Star, Legend tells them he has to talk to Tella alone. He tells her the weakness they share won’t help, but tells her that Esmeralda helped the Fallen Star create the Fates in the first place. As part of his deal for Tella’s debt, Legend delivered Esmeralda to the Temple of the Stars, and now has assigned Armando to be Tella’s guard. 

Chapters 17-19

Scarlett faints from the grief and wakes up in Julian’s room. He reads from an old book that he thinks the magic key the girl gave Scarlett is the Reverie Key, a Fated object that can turn any lock and take the holder to any person they can imagine. They use the key to go all over the world to visit people Julian knows.

Chapter 20

After Tella looses Armando, she goes to the gambling parlor Jacks own to ask about the Fallen Star’s weakness when she runs into Mistress Luck, another Fate. Mistress Luck warns Tella to stay away from Jacks because if an immortal falls in true love they’ll become mortal. As Jacks’ weakness, he would kill her before she made him mortal. 

Then, Jacks appears behind her and gets Tella to wager on a game of roulette if he can enter her dreams which he wins. In return, Jacks tells her that her best bet against the Fallen Star is to find the Ruscica, a book inside the Immortal Library or two sisters who trade secrets in the Vanished Market, one of the Fated places. But he warns her that all of it will come at a great price.

Chapters 21-23

As part of the competition, Scarlett receives a crystal watering can as part of a gift from Nicolas. She agrees to see him one more time even though she knows she wants to pick Julian. In a dream later, both Legend and Jacks show confused to see each other before Tella wakes herself up. 

Tella gets a dress and note from Legend asking to meet inside a maze. Then, Scarlett goes to meet Nicolas without telling anyone when someone tries to kidnap her. 

Chapter 24

When Tella meets Legend in the maze, he asks to make her immortal also, but Tella declines because immortals can’t love. Tella says she just wants his love, but Legend is convinced he can’t truly love anymore. As Tella is running away from him, the Undead Queen and the Murdered King, two Fates, show up, but Legend uses his magic to push Tella away. 

Tella turns back in time to see only black smoke, but everything Legend made with magic is gone meaning he’s dead. He’ll come back to life because he’s immortal, but Tella doesn’t know when or where.

The Middle

Chapters 25-27

In the mayhem Julian finds Tella after promising Legend he’d get her out of there even though he will come back to life. Julian and Tella decide to find Scarlett first, so they head to Nicolas’ house only to find him burned to death. Tella thinks the Fallen Star did this as revenge for their own mother.

Scarlett wakes up in a house with the Fallen Star, Gavriel, who tells her that he’s her biological father. She admits she sees her own and others’ emotions in color, and Gavriel says he can train her to control others’ emotions. But for now she’s trapped in the Fated Menagerie with another Fate, the Lady Prisoner, who’s in a large cage.

Chapters 28-31

When Gavriel leaves, The Lady Prisoner tells Scarlett that he plans to rule the empire in terror and she’s the only one who can stop him. Then, Scarlett uses the key to get to Julian, jumping into his arms and telling him she loves him. When Tella awakes, Scarlett tells both of them about Gavriel, and they both reassure her that they’ll help protect her. 

They tell her about Legend and Nicolas, and Scarlett reveals that Gavriel wants to turn her into a Fate. Scarlett decides she has to go back so Gavriel can teach her to use her powers even though Tella and Julian both try to convince her out of it. She promises to use the key to slip them letters, but then she goes back. 

Chapters 32-33

Following Jacks instructions, Tella goes into the Vanishing Market while Julian keeps watch in the real world, and she finds the twins. The twins have a secret of the Fallen Stars that will help Tella, but they want Tella’s future daughter’s weakness who they’ve meet in the future since this Fated place is outside of regular time. Just then, Legend appears behind Tella to ask who the father is, but the twins will only say the father is magic.

The daughter will have magical abilities and one weakness that Tella must find and come back to tell them. Legend tries to convince her out of it, but Tella agrees. They hurry back to one of Legend’s safe houses in Valenda to find two Fates waiting, Maiden Death and the Assassin. 

Chapters 34-35

The two Fates tell Legend, Tella, Julian, and a few of Legend’s closest performers that they want to help defeat the Fallen Star because they no longer want to live under his power. They give Tella two luckless coins to summon them if needed, and after they leave Tella opens the secret that says Gavriel was briefing human from loving Paradise. Finding that unhelpful, Legend and Tella decide to go after the book in the Immortal Library. 

Again, Legend tries to convince Tella to be immortal, but she still refuses. She still wants him to love her, and he can’t. 

Chapters 36-38

Jacks appears in Tella’s dream offering to take her pain away again, but she declines. Scarlett receives a note from Tella saying they need Gavriel’s blood, and Scarlett writes back they have three days before he comes to take the throne. Then, Tella and Legend go looking in some ruins for the Immortal Library when they run into another Fate, Priestess, Priestess, who you have to answer honestly or you’ll die. 

Legend creates an illusion to scare her away weakening him when Jacks shows up and figures out he’s the real Legend. When Jacks starts giving Tella a heart attack, Legend agrees to give Jacks his full power back as long as Jacks never uses them on him or Tella. Tella hears Jacks tell Legend that he’s going to win Tella, and after Legend tells her he’ll convince her to be immortal. 

Chapters 39-40

Jacks shows up in Tella’s dream, but she doesn’t want to see him after what he did to Legend. Now Legend is being extra nice to convince her, but they run into Jacks again looking for the library who says he has an apology gift for Tella. The gift is the Map of All, a Fated item that leads you anywhere you want to go, and Legend and Tella use it to find the entrance to the Library. 

Chapters 41-42

They make it into the library where they can’t speak and find the book. In the Menagerie, Scarlett and the Lady Prisoner plot to cut Gavriel for his blood, but he figures it out and puts Scarlett’s head in a ruby cage. The next day, Gavriel brings in Esmeralda, who he stole from the temple, and tells Scarlett he’ll remove the cage if she uses her powers on Esmeralda.

Chapters 43-46

Tella tries to read the Ruscica with her own blood and the book tells her that her and Jacks were married the night she let him take away her sadness when she repeated the magic to him. She goes to find Jacks who admits to selfishly doing it to have her and pleads with her to pick over Legend, but in the end he gives her the magic words to severe the marriage bond between them. Tella heads back to Legend because she’s decided she wants to be with him forever as an immortal, but when she tells him that she loves him, he can’t change her because he thinks she deserves someone who can really love her.

Scarlett gets Esmeralda to help her trick Gavriel, but in the end Gavriel snaps Esmeralda’s neck anyways. 

The Almost Ending

Chapters 47-49

In Tella’s dream, the Maiden Death shows up to say Tella needs to summon her right away to save her sister, and when Tella wakes she has the two luckless coins in her hand. Then, she finds Julian has left to get Scarlett, so Tella convinces Legend to have the two Fates help them get Scarlett and Julian back. After Gavriel removes the cage on her head, Scarlett gets him to talk about her mother in hopes that he’ll feel love. 

Chapters 50-51

At the coronation, Gavriel tells the crowd in Valenda that his wife Paradise was actually Elantine’s rightful heir, and he’s taking over now with Scarlett as the princess. At the ball after when the other Fates are torturing humans with their games, Scarlett sees Julian dressed as a guard, but Gavriel notices and has him tied up. Gavriel makes Scarlett use her powers to turn Julian’s love into hate for her, and, as she feels her powers finally start working, she decides she can’t do it. 

Scarlett tells Gavriel she won’t help him if he doesn’t let Julian go, so he finally lets Julian go. Later, Scarlett gets back to her room and uses the key to get to Julian. 

Chapters 52-53

When Scarlett finds herself in the dungeon, she’s trying to free Julian from the cell he’s being tortured in when Gavriel and Poison show up to stop her. As they’re fighting, Scarlets magic dress gets ripped up while Legend shows up, and Scarlett uses the key to help them escape as Poison throws a liquid on Julian. When they appear back in Scarlett’s room in the Menagerie with Tella, Maiden Death, and the Assassin, Julian is healed from whatever Poison threw on him.

Then, Scarlett tells them of her plan to have the Assassin bring her back in time into her mother’s past to steal her mother’s dress and watch her to intimidate her. Scarlett plans to pretend to be Paradise because they look so much alike, so Gavriel will feel love and be human for a little while. Suddenly, Jacks appears and says he can help Tella get close enough to Gavriel that she can stab him. 

Chapters 54-55

Jacks only agree to help if he can use his abilities to make Tella in love with him forever, and, having no other choice to get close to Gavriel, Tella agrees. Scarlett goes back to the day Paradise found out she was pregnant with the Assassin, but Paradise sees Scarlett following behind her. Because Paradise threatens to kill her, Scarlett admits the truth of who she is and what Gavriel is to her, and Scarlett realizes that her mother did what she did because Scarlett has always been the one to warn her.

Chapters 56-58

After Scarlett changes into one of Paradise’s dresses, Paradise disappears and the Assassin brings Scarlett to the current day Gavriel. Gavriel orders everyone out of the throne room, but Tella lunges at Scarlett screaming about her mother. But when Gavriel tries to attack Tella, Scarlett gives away that she’s not Paradise.

Then, Scarlett tells Gavriel that Paradise truly loves him and wouldn’t want him to do any of this. After talking about her, Gavriel cries over killing her and when he starts shedding human tears, Tella stabs him in the heart. He apologizes to Scarlett as he dies. 

Jacks tries to leave with Tella who still feels like like she’s in love with him, but her body stops when Legend calls out to her. After Tella steps away from Jacks, Legend creates an illusion so it’s just the two of them, and he apologizes for leaving her after Caraval because he realized he was falling in love with her and got scared. He admits he loves her and wants to give up his immortal life to be with her, and that love breaks Jack’s magic she’s under. 

True Ending 

The Fates, who are now ageless instead of immortal, have fled the city. As Scarlett gets ready for her official coronation as empress, Julian brings her a pair of gloves that he sewed from the scraps of her magical dress. Then Julian asks her to marry him, and she says yes. 

Encore

Tells writes Legend a letter asking him to kidnap her and take her on an adventure because her life as a princess will be too boring.

Read the Full Book Review

Now that you’re reminded what happened in the book, read my full book review. There’s also recommendations of books to read next if you liked this one. 

While this is technically the last book in the Caraval trilogy, there is a holiday novella, Spectacular, that continues with the Dragna sisters, Julian, and Legend. If you want a little bit more of the magic of Caraval read that one next. I have a summary of that one here.