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It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift–back into Black London.
Now, restless after having given up his smuggling habit, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks as she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games–an extravagant international competition of magic meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries–a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.
And while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night will reappear in the morning. But the balance of magic is ever perilous, and for one city to flourish, another London must fall.

I’ve been reading this series as a buddy read with Alex which has been so much fun so far. Once again, I partly listened to this one on audio and the audiobook for this one was so much better than the first book. Instead of just having one narrator like in A Darker Shade of Magic, we have a male and a female narrator in this one and it really helped the story. I found it a lot easier to focus on the audiobook with multiple narrators and I wasn’t distracted by the voices.

We start the book on Lila’s point of view which I loved. Even though this book is in third person, there’s definitely a distinct separation between the characters that are being focused on and the narrator does change in the audiobook depending on it. I definitely have found myself enjoying Lila’s points of view more.

Kell would say it was impossible. 

Something I found myself absolutely loving about this book and the series in general is the fact this book has a very separate plot line from the first book. I often find second books in series can fall into being a bridge book between the first and third book, or just continue on and drag out the plot from the first. Without spoiling this book as it is the second in the series, this book follows a game called the Element Games or the Essen Tasch, which was so much fun to read about.

I found this one very fast paced again, which I’m glad about because the third and final book in this series is thick and I’m glad I’m not too daunted about going into it. I really like the characters but as with the first book, I did want a little more tension between them and a little more interaction to keep me interested in their relationship.

What a useless word, in a world with magic.

Overall, this was such a good second book in a series and there’s so much to enjoy. I’m very excited to finish off this series and see where A Conjuring of Light goes!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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