A Conjuring of Light // conjured my heart right out of my chest

When a finale is capable of making your heart ache as though it has been taken from your chest, you know that something must have been done right.



And what a finale it was. A Conjuring of Light follows on from the intense ending of A Gathering of Shadows, never missing a beat. A darkness greater than ever before spreads from one world to another, with the power to destroy anything that does not bend under its influence. But there are still an impossible few unwilling to fall to their knees, and as unlikely as they are, together they might just have a chance to save their worlds.

There was so much action in this book, with some fight scenes that were beyond epic. But I often struggle to follow battle scenes, and besides, what I was really in it for was the characters. The rebellious prince and the runaway privateer. The red-haired magician and the magician who's will wasn't his own. And of course the thief turned pirate; the cross-dressing impossible girl. Kell and Lila I loved from the start and Rhy and Alucard I fell for in book 2, but there I was, nearing the end of an era, and I still felt I knew them better with every page. And although I never connected much with Holland, his story and development broke my heart.

I lived for every interaction between these five characters, whether it was the words never said between them or a literal punch in the face. Their dynamics were what made this book special beyond the first two in the series.

"What are we drinking to?" / "The living," said Rhy. / "The dead," said Alucard and Lila at the same time. / "We're being thorough," added Rhy.

There were times when it was not the characters, but the beauty of the writing in and of itself that made me tear up. Schwab wove small and seemingly insignificant strands in the first two books to help shape the third, and even echoed old lines, reinforcing their power, combined with new lines that were just as majestic.

"Love and loss," he said, "are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be."

 No series is without its flaws, but this is one that I will be keeping close to my heart.

Warnings: blood, death, violence, self-harm, sexual scenes
Diversity Note: genderfluid character and POC bisexual character (labels not specified in book)