CANNONBALL!

I’m falling behind in my reviews again, having finished this over 2 weeks ago but since discovering an epic Reddit thread that has been taking up all of my time. This is even more annoying given that I’ve just realised that with this book I finally claimed a Cannonball (doh! And yay!)

A Conjuring of Light starts exactly where A Gathering of Shadows left off. As Red London celebrates the victor of The Element Games, a shadow is stealing through the city, leaching it of colour and its inhabitants of free will. A creature of magic from out of Black London, responsible for the destruction of that world, wants to rule over all, and only the small few still safe inside the warded palace are able to resist.

In their quest to destroy the being, Kell and (more importantly for me) Lila must team up with their old foe, Holland, as well as the dashing Captain Emery (much to Kell’s disgust) to track down an artefact which could help in their seemingly impossible task, while Rhy is left to protect what remains of their home.

Normally when reading a series, I find that it starts out well and goes ever so slightly downhill from there. Shades of Magic is not this kind of series, feeling instead that everything had been working towards the endgame.

Kell has never been the real draw for me in these books and Lila continued not to disappoint, instead clearly displaying at every turn why she stood head and shoulders above all others for the title of the best character in these books. And while there may not have been any real doubt as to how everything could end, the way we got there was incredibly entertaining.

I’ll be looking out for more of V.E. Schwab’s work for whenever I need some brain candy.