The Book of Shadows

The Book of Storms Trilogy #3

by Ruth Hatfield

The thrilling conclusion to The Book of Storms trilogy

Strange shadows are appearing over Danny's town. Where they land, people are drained of all colour and hope. Cars crash; people stand, directionless.

Fleeing from the shadows, Danny knows Sammael is behind this horror. Danny knows the world must be saved; he knows that to do that, Sammael must be destroyed. Once again, Danny must overcome his belief that he's not brave, and face his greatest fears. Danny needs Cath. But first he must rescue her from underneath the shadows.

Their only hope might be the mysterious Book of Shadows - but they will have to make it first. And is Danny doing the right thing? Can Sammael really be destroyed?

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens

256 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2016

Reviews

[Courtney Holcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was actually pretty good 😊

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in order to help my mom who is a middle school teacher stock her library! I think this is a fun and interesting read that is definitely appropriate for middle school without sacrificing the plot.
I think this story covers topics that are relevant to younger readers and was entertaining!

[M.J. Mallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/201...

My favourite in the trilogy... 4.5 stars. :)

Full review on my blog including author Ruth Hatfield talking about her books, and her publishing journey.

The final book in The Book of Storms trilogy – the conclusion was great. Loved this, Ruth Hatfield.
The first half of the book built up the shadows in a slow, grey progression to the conclusion. The title: The Book of Shadows implied that shadows would play a part, and this in itself attracted me to the story as I write about shadows too, but I was left wondering, is that it?  Halfway through I had actually said to my eldest daughter that I wasn’t too sure where Ruth was going with this. How wrong I was, (this often happens to me.) I get restless and then I turn a page and wow… My whole reading experience changes! I  was missing Cath, the feisty girl in the series. As soon as Cath, and Barshin, the hare came back into the story the action cranked up a notch of intensity and the final half of the book had me enthralled. There were revelations, colours, dreams, – all was not as it seems. And the at times frustratingly, uncourageous main protagonist Danny didn’t disappoint. He has heart! Enough to fill an ocean…. But no spoilers, no more about that, as this is one book I could really spoil if I said too much!

Ruth Hatfield’s powers of imagination are excellent. She truly breathes life into her animal characters making them almost human at times. Ori the dog, Danny’s new friend was fantastic, as was Shimny, the horse. Apparently, local Cambridge author  Ruth Hatfield loves horses and you can really experience her love of animals and nature in her writing. So bear that in mind if you like books about nature, animals, and the earth.

I’d highly recommend this middle-grade series for those of you who love adventure, animals, deliberations about courage, storms, a  courageous female character, shadows, and a thoughtful contemplation about the earth’s elements: earth, air, fire and water.

[Miriam Robarts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this series and the characters. Unfortunately, there are inconsistencies. In the first book, Sammael wants to use the Taros to control the storms to kill all the humans. And although we are vaguely told that he brings good dreams and ideas for inventions, we mainly hear about mean and evil things. He's even mean to his loyal dog. However, in the last book, he isn't trying to kill people--it's now his stoat that is sneakily laying waste to the world by a different means, and Sammael isn't really a villain, he just spreads both good and bad dreams. It also says that he doesn't have emotions but he gets mad, is sad when his dog dies, etc.

In the second book, Sammael is making gaping holes in Chronos--which is a problem--but at the end of the third book, it says he just uses Chronos and the sand as it's meant to be used. Maybe it's supposed to be that he's going unchecked, as the Guardian of Chronos is getting old and dies in book 2, but it just seems like they decided to make him suddenly not so bad after all in book 3.

There are also errors in the writing, such as spelling errors and forgetting whether the character has a pencil or a pen.

Overall, I did enjoy the series although, nearly all of book 3 is extremely sad--at least it ends well. It's an adventurous story, and I wanted to find out what happened to the characters.