A Gathering Of Shadows

If you like what Schwab did in her first book, A Darker Shade of Magic, then you'll definitely like what she does in the sequel. I had mixed feelings about the first book, which started out strong with interesting world building, and interesting characters, and an enticing plot. However, the book was wildly uneven, starting strong and ending weak.Things pick up for the better though in Book 2 and if you liked what Schwab does in the first book, this book does everything a bit better. As such, it's a pretty good read – a better one even – than the first. If you want to read about an alternate London full of thieves, pirates, magic, bad boy Royals, teeny angst, and all that, well, both the first and second book in the series will smash all those buttons. Fans of Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Red Queen's War especially, will really enjoy Schwab's books as they occupy the same sort of space. The two books feature a strong, empowered female protagonist; as such, it's a good female-oriented fantasy with romance, angst, powerful women, and such. Given the year is still early and there's a lot of awesome books coming out over the next months, I don't feel A Gathering of Shadows will stand the test of time and beat out all the other still-to-be-released books. But at least for now, as of March, it's one of the better fantasy books released.And if you have read the first book and liked it, then regardless of what I say, you'll be reading it either way.