The Shadow Wand

it was another great book (: the writing style ended up being a little different than the other two as the author switched to going to different character perspectives a lot which wasnt bad but i really wanted to get to the meat of the story since the story is that good & i was hanging on every last word every time the story switched back to the main character

This book was so good! Unlike the first 2 books of the series, we get multiple POVs which is really cool because you get to see how everyone's stories are intertwined. I sense a big romantic conflict coming for book 4 and this is why I hate love triangles! Elloren has to come to grips with her newfound power while also battling some personal inner conflict. Vogel's power is growing super strong and I sense an epic battle also coming in book 4. Again this book (like the others) focuses on some difficult themes of race conflict and abuse (physical and sexual) so keep that in mind if you plan to read. There are some steamy scenes but they're mild and not graphic. I'd classify this as YA. My only complaint is that there's a cliffhanger ending and I have to wait until February for closure! So damn good. It's been a long time since I've read fantasy YA and have been so consumed and invested in the story. I think the next book is going to be full of adventure, battle, and conflict and I can't wait!

I was so excited about reading this book and even re-read the Iron Flower in preparation for it. However, I quickly became aware that this is not, as I thought, the final part of a trilogy, but rather the third book in a five-book-series (the correct term seems to be “pentalogy”, but I've never seen it used before). While I loved to be inmersed in this world again, and still have a deep appreciation for the world-building, the attention to detail in the descriptions of the characters and the anti-prejudice message, this book felt “off” to me on two levels:

1. The “love triangle”-trope that apparently is considered as essential by some YA-authors (and probably readers) has been taken to an extreme in this one. So much so, that it felt not only contrived but deeply insincere and inconsistend with the former story arc. While at first I could appreciate the cliffhanger about Ivan's death as a nice memory to when I first read a similar death scene in GRRMs ADwD, it got old really quick. It was so obvious that he wasn't actually dead, that it made even Elloren's (very few) displays of grieving him quite unbelievable. And here is my main quarrel with this storyline: the way she quickly switches onto Lucas just felt so insincere and out of character for Elloren. It would have been much nicer to see an alliance among equals who need to be fasted "for the greater good" but remain friends or comrades rather than lovers. All the kissing and especially the sex scenes were just not believable, given the background of her history with Yvan.
2. Given the time we have spent in the territory and culture of the Amaz, and them having given refuge to Sage and others previously, it was not clear why Elloren wouldn't go to them first for refuge and training. They would have been ideal in their competence of warrior training and especially the combination of different culture's fighting styles. Train there and then go East to reunite with the rest of the Resistance group and her brothers would have been (in my humble opion) been an ideal choice. Instead, there was no mention of going to them until Valasca turned up with a death warrant, that she (the leader of the Queen's guard) would apparently ignore and then sacrifice her whole life and leave her country behind to help Elloren. In addition to that, we got a large portion of the book consisting in very slow-moving plot circling around Elloren's training and overcoming of her "emotionality", only to end in her being completely helpless, calling out the (real) names of her helpers in the forest she stranded and thereby putting their entire mission in danger again. That was really frustrating to have to read through.In the end, I felt like the publisher wanted to really milk this story by making two more books than initially planned and thereby sacrificed the high level of quality and dense story-telling of the previous books (including the prequels - I'd prefer the Rebel Mages books over the Shadow Wand). And the YA-trope of the love triangle was taken to a level that felt really contrived, damaging the narrative as a whole in the process.I rarely write reviews, but I felt so many things after finishing the book that I just had to get this off my chest. I'm really hoping that "The Demon Tide" will be back on top!

I read a spoiler before. Still, it did not prepare me for the disappointment of the “strange and catastrophic” moment only to be turned into a cliffhanger. And Elloren is progressing at a reasonable pace for character development. Sadly, I am less interested in what happens to Vogel (as in how) and more interested how her heart will decide between the two male leads. Because if the author does something to one of them, she has surely left room for the other to do the same. The first book established possible relationships, the second built up one, and now the third has invested in the other.




This is a spoiler down here:
(P.S. I one-hundred percent think Jarod will want to be with Aislinn regardless. I see him accepting her for leaving everything behind and wanting to turn Lupine to retrieve her dignity back.)

Vogel is rising in power and set on claiming every land, and enslaving all those non-Gardenarian. Elloren is building confidence in who she is as she struggles with her feelings for Yvan and Lukas and transforms herself into a warrior. Her brothers and her friends all trying to find their places before the war finally reaches them. Will it be enough? How can they stop the terrible power of the Shadow wand?

Book 3 of is amazing. Ramping up chapter after chapter until, of course, left hanging until the next book. Can it please be June 2021 already?