A Conjuring of Light, by V. E. Schwab

[Peter]

This book is sooo good!!! I'm only 75% of the way through A Conjuring of Light and unless the author massively drops the ball at the end, it's definitely going to be a 5 star book.

Even though I'm not quite finished it, I had to share how good it is and how excited I am that it is. I loved the first book A Darker Shade of Magic. It was new, unique, different, had interesting characters with real relationships and stood out from other fantasy novels. I couldn't wait to read the second in the series, A Gathering of Shadows. When I finally did, I felt let down. It wasn't as gripping, had less character development and played events up only for them to end abruptly or be anti-climatic.

I put off reading the third book because book 2 left me in a bit of a slump. This year I decided to pick it up and finish off the series. I'm glad I did. Everything I felt was missing from book 2 is here in this book. There are real stakes, and the danger feels real. There is real loss - there have been points where the losses reminded me distinctly of G. R. R. Martin. There have been plot twists and absolutely stellar character development without seeming tedious. And tension. I'm eager to go on and find out what happens next.

I'll post a followup once I finish the book, but I highly recommend the series. While the second book was a little underwhelming, the first and final books are both absolute stand outs in my reading. For anyone interested, there are POC and LGBTQ characters, but the plot isn't about those characteristics, they are just a part of the people who populate the pages and this book will check off a number of other ATY prompts as well.

[Peter]

I finished I couple of days ago and it didn't disappoint. It was tense right up to the climactic confrontation, and then all the loose threads were tied up well. It was a good ending that managed to express the changes the main characters underwent throughout the entirety of the series, but didn't lose the original feel of each of them. I appreciated how well the author used the final chapters to highlight their development and growth, but tied it all back to the characters we were introduced to at the beginning. Overall, a very well executed conclusion.

I highly recommend the series.