6/5 stars
When I heard one of my all-time favorite authors was writing a NEW series in a FAVORITE fantasy world, I was ecstatic, borderline unhinged with excitement. The original Shades of Magic trilogy is a series that means so much to me and I love and adore the characters and the world more than I can say.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Fragile Threads of Power. I didn’t know if our old characters would have cameos or be featured at all, and there’s always a little bit of trepidation for me when I’m approaching a much-loved fantasy world with characters that I don’t know yet.
But if you were wondering if we see our old characters rest assured that we do, they are back, changed of course after the events of A Conjuring of Light and also seven years older. I loved seeing how they had grown and changed since the end of that book, and it was so comforting to have what felt like old friends on the page again in Red London having new adventures.
There are, however, new characters to get to know and love too. Two of my favorites were Kosika from White London, and Tes from Red London. We get to see a lot of their backstory for the first third of the book until we see the even that features them as major players in Threads.
The first third of the book does have a lot of flashbacks and switching between POV’s. All of which is very deliberately done to get us to the meat of what the threat is in the current book and how the past got us here. And that can sometimes be something that is hard for me, but I felt equally invested in every storyline that was being told and didn’t feel pulled out of the story at all.
V.E. Schwab does a lot of things right for me in her books, and one of my favorites is her character and relationship development. I love seeing Lila and Kel back as well as Rhy and Alucard, and the added dynamic of a Queen and child in that family unit. Another thing I love about Schwab’s books is her world building and plotting. The opening chapter of this book is particularly strong for world building, plotting, and character introduction. We are immediately introduced to what this world is, who this person is, and what might happen from this one event. And then the way Schwab weaves in all the other characters, their past histories, and the threads of what is to come in the final chapters of this book was masterfully done.
I loved every single page of this book. I was captivated and never wanted to put it down. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it until I could get back to reading it again. This book honestly exceeded every expectation I had and is a new favorite from this author and for the year.
I received an ARC for review, thank you to the author and Tor Publishing! The Fragile Threads of Power has a release date of September 26, 2023 and is the first in a new series called The Threads of Power which is in The Shades of Magic Universe.
Crystal's Bookish Life 