Week 50 Review: The Fragile Threads of Power

From Goodreads:

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years--and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own—but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together--or unravel it all.

My Review:
It was really fantastic to read this book again! I really love the world, and it was so good to see these characters again, to see how their lives had changed since the events of the last book! Like the fact that Rhy had to marry a woman to bear a child to be the heir to the throne, even though he and ? are still together. So that was a shock.

Both Kell and Rhy are dealing with the aftermath of the previous book. That Kell feels pain when he uses his magic, which is really hard on him. And Rhy, that his reign is being questioned, because of the lessening of magic in the world, given that there's so few Antari. But it feels like that's a bigger problem then at first glace, because it's been going on since before he was crowned, and probably goes back to when the barriers between the worlds went up when Black London fell. At least, that's my theory! 

There were also the new characters, Kosika and Tes. Kosika, I know her story is going to have a bigger impact in future books, but for now, her story was pretty self contained. But Tes, she was directly connected to what was going on, with the theft of an object by people who want to take down the Maresh family.

We got bits and pieces with each part, some focusing on the past and present of certain characters, some on others, and as the story grew, and came together, yeah, so much happened, and I loved how it turned out, and so excited to see where's it's going to go! 

This was such a great read, and I can't wait to see where the series goes from here! 

Author: V.E. Schwab
Series: Threads of Power #1, Shades of Magic Universe 
Read: October 12th, 2023
Source: Library
Reason Why: Love her writing and this world, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2023 Book! 
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: September 26th 2023

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars