A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)

by V.E. Schwab

[sa090]

Well, that’s one series completely read by Schwab, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it definitely wouldn’t be the last I read of her work.

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I don’t know what I expected exactly going into this series, I knew magic was a thing and there are multiple locations, but I also thought it was going to be something that’s blown up without any substance like my previous less than happy experiences with other famous titles. However, I’m happy to say that in this case in particular I couldn’t be more wrong. The worlds continue being interesting and they get even more so every time I take an extra glance at them, I do want to know more about Black London and the other countries in Red London’s world, but for now I’ll say that the books have got enough to take of the plot being discussed.

Speaking of the plot, for a final book, the plot wasn’t moving in one constant speed. Instead the plot alternated between fast paced and slow paced, I didn’t expect to see the latter and to be very honest, sometimes I didn’t see the point of seeing it in what was supposed to be a finale. But, I will be lenient and not focus too much on it because of the final pit stop our friends had to go through. I didn’t expect it to happen, it made me incredibly excited to see more and I liked the untold mystery of the happenings in it. I did think what Kell did in regards to the note there a wasted opportunity, but for a final book, that plot line getting a focus is not exactly relevant nor needed.

The characters in the book continues being one of the series’ highlights and we get the final final confirmation to what has been eluded to since book in regards to Lila. I enjoyed seeing Kell, Alucard and Rhy each try to work around with what they were dealt, I didn’t expect to see a deeper side of the King and Queen, but I’ll greatly appreciate it. That being said though, I do believe that Schwab created a bigger than needed ensemble in book 2, having them carry forward to book 3 without the bigger memory they should have created then made me a little annoyed trying to recall who did what. It wasn’t too many thankfully, but it was still something before they went away and I stayed with the ones I knew a little too much.

I think the issue ultimately lies with world building or more accurately, with how accessible the world was made outside of the Londons’. It wasn’t or isn’t as great as I hoped, I mean I get why, but as someone who doesn’t read books in completed series back to back, I want to be able to easily pick up a book I read after a while and immediately don’t feel like I’m missing something. This book is not severely lacking in that area, I just greedily wish for me despite knowing that it will serve close to nothing plot wise.

Magic however. is another aspect in the series that continues being awesome to see, Lila is now a lot more proficient so seeing her and others get to use more of it is always just fun. The magic system is a lot more versatile than a I thought, you can do a lot of things here if you’ve got the basics done and I personally want to see a fast forward 10 or 15 years in the future to see how Lila will be like as I’m almost 100% sure she’s going to be leaving Kell in the dust skills and abilities wise. Or at least I hope so lol.

Thankfully for me there is a new trilogy in the works for this series and it will feature the entire cast of this book despite them not being the actual leads and I’m fine with that as long as I get to see the Antari be badass again. I do know that there is a graphic novel series going on, but for some reason I wasn’t a fan of any graphic novel I read so far so I will refrain for a bit, maybe after I finish her other series. She has me hooked and I can’t wait to see more!

I do have one more thing to add before I wrap this up though, I sometimes listened to this book on audiobook and I’m just going to say that Kate Reading is a fantastic narrator. However, I had issues with the guy reading with her, I don’t know what it was but he wasn’t very fun to listen to. Anyways, small comment that just boils down to preference so yeah :)

Final rating: 4/5