A Gathering of Shadows

So, not as good as the first book but still worth the read and I do love a strong female lead. However, it seems rather than developing Lila’s character and her relationships with Kell and Alucard, the author decides to take us off on the obligatory “let’s have a gay romance side hustle” for no apparent reason than to appease the masses (I have finished book 3 so again, no reason, doesn’t add anything to the plot) . Do women have to share everything with men?? Come on! Give me a strong female heroine and shine the spotlight on HER!

I read in this in March 2017, and again in March 2025. It’s as good — better — than I remember, eight years later. Magic and mayhem, love and loss at its finest. While this book deals with two Londons, and the first book in the series deals with four, the excitement in this book is even more gripping. And the damn cliffhanger! Epic. I have three books on loan from Libby but I can’t read those yet, because I have to finish this series.Highly recommend!

I've seen criticism of book 2 being slow, but the characterization was above and beyond what I read in book 1. Maybe, just maybe, I need to read book 1 again and pay better attention, but I think we only scratched the surface of who these characters are in book 1 and we got such a more indepth view here in book 2. Now, I could fault this book or book 1 for that... but I choose to keep my book 1 rating at 4 stars and give this one the favor it deserves for such an exciting story with such amazing characters!!Picking up where book 1 left off, Lila is determined to make her way in Red London, a world she should not be able to exist in, but maybe she'll be able to find out who she really is, why she has unexplained magical ability, why one of her eyes is false...Kell and Rhy are trying to navigate their new twined soul, both feeling each other's pain and frustrations, so Kell has become restless and angry, while Rhy is feeling guilty for being tethered to Kell's life force. The solution?? Enter Kell secretly into a magical Triwizard Tournament! It was ridiculous in so many ways, I constantly waited for everything to fall apart, and maybe it should have, especially when COMPLETELY UNTRAINED Lila manages to get herslf into the tournament as well...Also, enter a whole host of new and familiar characters, all drawn expertly to complement our mains, and I absolutely adored this middle book! Yes, it's true, the "plot" doesn't even happen till after the halfway mark, but if you love these characters, you will adore the build-up. The angst in every character is perfectly rendered and I loved being inside their heads, feeling their longing and their frustrations. The tournament bouts and the conversations were so well articulated! I was transported to this world!My only criticism is that we never EVER seem to get enough of Lila and Kell together. And I'm not even talking about payoff, just their trying to figure each other out. TALKING! You know? That magical thing you do with your mouth? Instead of doing the manly thing and bottling it all up like Kell and Rhy love to do, or running from it like a thief in the night like Lila and Alucard love to do.The way this book ends is the sweetest torture! I cannot wait to start book 3. So much is hanging in the balance! No middle book syndrome here for me, I loved this book fully and cannot wait to see how the story concludes!!

Loving the story, characters, imaginative ways magic exists and is used- so much is fun and cool and new. Finally, an author who doesn't paint siblings as besties who are super happy with each other all the time. The romance is also done well, in my opinion.Points were shaved because of explaining things. "Antari" was explained multiple times in book one and in this book; not new information, just over and over and over again. Same things with events, even events that happened in this book. I don't need to be told the entire process, logic, ethics, and consequences every time. I felt like an English teacher wanting to circle all of the redundant "filler". This book did not need to be 512 pages long.

There are parts of this novel I absolutely loved. Like truly adored. Rhy, for one. Other things I won’t spoil here. But I just can’t get over how much I dislike Lila. I think VE Schwab has a great mind for writing villains, and background characters - Rhy, Alucard, Holland, all of the others, are fleshed out and exciting to read about. I would read an entire story about the Dark Spire crew. Or hell, give me more of that magician warrior woman we meet in the tournament, I love Kell too, although he’s not my favorite.But Lila is INCREDIBLY boring. She has zero character development. She’s about as one dimensional as the piece of paper she was written on. Plus, her scenes with Kell were just lackluster and they had ZERO chemistry. Alucard had more chemistry with literally the entire universe than Lila has with anyone (let alone Kell).This seems to be an ongoing issue with this author. Her female characters are cardboard cut out caricatures of real women. Is VE Schwab a woman? I thought she was but she writes women as if she’s literally never met one.Im going to read the rest of the series because I love everyone else and I want to know what happens, but damn I kind of wish Lila would just cease to exist as a character 😂