#theshadowwand

I really struggled with giving this book three or four stars because while it’s clear Ms. Forest tried very hard, there are a few things that bothered me. So after a night’s sleep, I rounded up to four and here is why:

Let’s start with the good:

• Fans of Lukas Grey will love him even more in this book. As Elloren’s forced fastmate he continues to be the quiet savior and voice of reason. I won’t say more about their relationship because frankly it’s a huge plot point.
• Elloren/Ren begins to grow a back bone about her powers! While our heroine is never shy about taking action, in the first two books she spent a lot of time lamenting about her powerlessness. Powerless no more! 
  
• Some of our favorite or MY favorite secondary characters make an appearance! If you like Tiernay and Wynter, they have some chapters throughout. Mums the word about the other characters—you’ll need to read it.
  
• There is plenty of action from all sides. Literally. Everyone is out to get Ren— even the trees want her dead. The trees try to bottleneck her power (not huge spoiler and hard to pinpoint why this would matter).
  
• We learn more about the different races and magic sources in Gardeneria and the mythical East. It’s nice to finally leave the walls of Verpax University. 
  

And now the not-so-great:

• The first 20% of the book is a rushed introduction to new characters. Characters that are also in some cases a new race of Fae. It’s a lot to take in when the second book ended on a cliffhanger focused on Yvan and Ren. Furthermore, I didn’t really understand why Ren was sent back into the arms of her enemy. Just didn’t seem wise?
• We jump around the content and the plot a lot, going from POV to POV. I assume it’s meant to illustrate all the different parties involved in the conflict and that all of this will be resolved in the last book.
• The jump from 3rd person to 1st person narrative for Ren was really clunky. I’m not a fan.
  
• The way some characters are killed just seems too perfect. Like the author was trying to figure out a way to get rid of loose ends and dropped an ACME anvil on them.
  
• The romance angle. I got pretty tired with having to hear about the flames burning Ren up.
  

Overall, you will not be bored or disappointed with The Shadow Wand. The third installment of The Black Witch Chronicles delivers on action, suspense, romance, and more! I very much look forward to the conclusion of this series.

I received a digital ARC courtesy of Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

xx

Susan