A Gathering of Shadows

5/5 stars

Four months ago, Kell came into possession of a mysterious stone that sent him and Lila on an adventure of a lifetime. Now, he’s back home and the entire Maresh kingdom has descended for Essen Tach, a competition of magicians. Lila is also in this city, but has yet to reunite with Kell. As their paths eventually cross, they realize that the world is more unbalanced than they thought and one London may be at fatal risk. 

V.E. Schwab has truly impressed me. This is only book 2 of the trilogy, but I love it already. I was excited to meet new characters in A Gathering of Shadows and really loved seeing how their histories mingled. There was a bit more romance in this than in A Darker Shade of Magic and big props to V.E. Schwab for making all of her characters a bit ambiguous and queer. 

This book was definitely on the lighter side compared to the first. I found it to be fun, comforting adventure that gave our characters time to explore their new realities and build some relationship tension. I didn’t mind that most of the adventure was focused on Essen Tach and liked how this competition let Lila and Kell examine her true powers. 

The last 10% of the book was definitely riveting and picked up considerably. I was deeply immersed in the story and after reading the last sentence, turned the page expecting more. Of course it ended on a cliffhanger. Thank goodness I already have A Conjuring of Light because I am immediately moving on to the final chapter of this trilogy.