Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I am reading a bit out of order but was waiting for this to arrive! This is week 6: highest rated on my TBR.
I am one chapter in and so excited! I loved the first book so much (I am not usually a fantasy person) This world really speaks to me

I just started reading this book. I got it the day it came out but have prolonged reading it because it wasn't originally on my challenge. To appease my impatience to dive in and uncontrollable love for all of Victoria Schwab's books, I moved a few things around and put it in the 'profession that interest you' category. I mean - who wouldn't want to be a pirate or an Antari? I have no doubt that this sequel will be everything.

That's saying a lot too, because ADSOM was phenomenal! But I don't doubt it!!

I am reading this for week 17. A book with a beautiful cover. This cover isn't bad, but I chose another edition:
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I read the first in the series a couple of months ago, and I was really curious about what happens to the characters, especially Lila.

Love it! Love it! Love it!
This series is just great, I have no words. The second book was better than the first..

I read A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab for 4. A book by an author you discovered in 2015 and I loved it.
I read the first book in the series last year and enjoyed it a lot.

GR synopsis:
Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games—an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries—a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again—meaning that another London must fall.

Unpopular opinion: I didn't like the book, nothing happened until the end. Plus, where were all the travels between alternate London? It's why I started the series, not for bickering between princes :(

I'll finish the series but I'll avoid Schwab after that, I really like her premises but not at all the results. Plus her characters don't work with me, so it's a huge problem in her characters driven novels.

I'm about 60% of this book and quite like it, but I agree that nothing much happens. Lila is getting a bit on my nerves because of too much cockiness (view spoiler)[who would illegally enter a magical tournament when they are only training for a few months??!? (hide spoiler)]

Haha Sophie, I felt exactly the same about your spoiler. It's very convenient for the author and totally fills the "chosen one with the best abilities ever" trope, that I didn't really like.

Just finished this one....

Ok, so I gave it 3 stars but it's somewhere between 3 and 4. It was almost 4 because I like the magic system and the characters and the concept of parallel worlds, but it got dragged down because almost nothing happened....

The first half of the book played up the Element Games as an extremely dangerous affair, with competitors often getting injured or sometimes dying in the process. It was a big deal and was supposed to be a huge challenge. And then they came and it was more like a schoolyard dodgeball game rather than an elite and dangerous battle for supremacy using elemental magic... there was no danger, no tension, and very little excitement.

I found the descriptions of the bouts were extremely limited or completely nonexistent. I wanted to see more of the magic in the world and have vivid descriptions of elemental combat... instead we got "She threw a fireball at him. He got hit. He threw a clod of earth back at her. She got hit. Then she threw TWO fireballs at him..." ugggh... The Element Games, for all they were played up, were the worst part of this book.

Also, I agree completely with Sophie: (view spoiler)[ Lila was cocky and annoying. She was one of my favourite characters in the first book, but she just made really dumb decisions in this one. I was ok with her entering the tournament.... but then breezing through it with almost no training against the elite magicians of the world? I don't buy it. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, this book was very obviously a set up for the final book. Introducing the neighbouring countries, Alucard, and making Lila powerful all seem like very blatant plot points that are going to come up as important factors in the final book.

The biggest redeeming factor about this book was Holland and the mysterious force he is dealing with. I really enjoyed the chapters about Holland and I did like the ending.

I would just like to say that I'm currently reading the final book of this series, A Conjuring of Light. Everything that I stated in my post above about book 2 setting up the final book appears to be true. HOWEVER, I have to say that the third book has everything that the second was missing; actual stakes the characters are up against, and real threats to the characters, plot twists, great character development, tension, foreboding and urgency. The third book takes off at a rapid pace and doesn't slow down.

I just wanted to say that for anyone reading the series who was amazed by the first book but felt let down by the second, the third book is worth it. It's incredible and I'm only 75% of the way through at the time I'm writing this.