[Book Review] A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

Witness the fate of beloved heroes - and enemies.

THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED...
The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.

WHO WILL CRUMBLE?
Kell - once assumed to be the last surviving Antari - begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?

WHO WILL RISE?
Lila Bard, once a commonplace - but never common - thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.

WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL?
And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay.

Past Reviews In This Trilogy 
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Gathering of Shadows

5 STARS 

Wow. I was completely blown away by the ending of this trilogy. Going into this book my expectations were pretty high. Not only did I love the first two books of this trilogy, but I had heard nothing but amazing things for A Conjuring of Light. 

The character growth in this book for each of the characters is one of the best examples I've ever read. I think each character goes through so much in this last installment that the reader really gets to know the ins and outs of every one of them. Kell and Rhy's sibling relationship is something that honestly makes me so happy and sad all at the same time. Kell is so loyal to Rhy and when we learn about how Rhy's parents raised Kell to be basically  Rhy's protector you can see that it's engraved in his soul to keep Rhy safe. No matter the costs. And it's both heartwarming and heartbreaking to read because it's suffocating Kell at times. Kell is my favorite character in this series. I think I will love him forever. I read a few reviews of people saying that Lila is the same person she was book one and has no growth and I fully disagree with that opinion. Lila ran away from everything, refused to grow attached to anyone, and refused to receive help or guidance from anyone. She was isolating herself and growing cold before she met Kell. I think we see so much growth of her allowing herself to open her heart to other people, allowing herself to be vulnerable. I have a lot of issues with Lila's constant need to put down other women, although like I said in my AGOS review, I think it's fully a character flaw and not a writing flaw, I even saw that lessen a lot more. She's not my favorite of the trilogy, but I like her so much more by the end of this story. Rhy's growth was really bittersweet, wanting to be a strong king and having issues believing in himself. I think watching him grow into the person he is by the end of this trilogy is full of a lot of hope despite some of the sadder elements. I also appreciated Alucard a lot more in this story. I never disliked him in AGOS but I didn't think we knew him enough to know if we were supposed to be on board or not. But between finding out his backstory and his relationship with Rhy I couldn't help but love him. 

Holland is the character that took me by surprise. Now, it was no secret to me that V.E. Schwab is a master at writing complex and morally grey characters. I hated him so much in book one, and then as we start getting more of his side of the story and his backstory you start to understand him more. By the middle/end of the third book when a lot is going down and we know so much about his story I couldn't help but feel broken for him. For everything he has been through. Although I still hated him for a lot of the stuff he did, I understood why he did what he did.

Kell and Lila's romance in this book, although not a frontal focus of the story, stepped it up a notch for me and I was pretty behind it for the entire book. I think that because we have established in the second book that they are romantically interested in each other and they're together for a lot of book three we get more moments with them. I really appreciated that because in the last books, book two specifically, I didn't see them becoming a romance but more just really good friends. But in book three I had no issues believing they were supposed to be together. They have so many soft sweet moments together and they even have some sexier moments that I absolutely loved. The scene in particular where Kell is teaching Lila all of the Antari spell words was both super sweet and super sexy and it didn't feel out of character. One thing I think happens a lot with badass lady characters who find themselves in romance, they lose some of that sharp badass personality because we are taught that women are to be soft and sweet in a relationship. Sometimes that is a good thing because it helps the character but other times it takes away from who the character is and seems inconsistent. With Lila she never changes, she is the same amount of sharp, she is just letting herself be more vulnerable. Which I really loved seeing from her.

This book is filled with action and plot. And I really loved it because I flew through this book faster than I expected to. I could not put it down and when I did all my thoughts were consumed by me wondering what was going to happen next. This trilogy as a whole keeps you on your feet and has you desperately needing the next book in the series. Even now, someone who has finished the trilogy, all I want is more. The story's arc is satisfying and I love how everything wraps up, despite it breaking my heart into little pieces. But I am already dying to know what will happen in the comics that Schwab is putting out.

Schwab is one of my favorite writers, probably at this point my absolute favorite writer, and I cannot wait to catch up with the rest of her books. Yesterday was the release of her book City of Ghosts, so that will definitely be on my TBR for this upcoming week. I also plan on reading Vicious and Our Dark Duet in September. I cannot recommend her books enough. She is easily now one of my auto-buy/read/borrow authors and I will continue to support her in any way I can. 

Overall, I recommend this trilogy along with the rest of Schwab's books. I think this is the perfect trilogy to read if you're trying to get into adult fantasy. The world isn't incredibly new when it comes to fantasy worlds and the magic is elemental magic so it's pretty typical stuff in that regard but it's how Schwab writes it that makes it so appealing. Plus the characters alone are enough to binge read this trilogy.

Thanks for reading!