I have put off reviewing this for a little bit (it's not out until September, but I have been sitting on the galley since April, hah.) because I just didn't want it to disappoint. I love the originally trilogy so much--I have read and reread it so many times. I love the characters and the world and the magic, so I was beyond thrilled, but a little apprehensive, about getting approved to read it. My worry was unfounded because this was such an absolute delight to read and I'm honored that I get to review it early. I already cannot wait for more in this 'spin-off' trilogy where Rhy is reigning and there is a new cast of characters and the wonderful, magical world we love. Even though this was a hefty number of pages, I flew through it and was shocked and dismayed when I flipped the last page. If you loved the original trilogy, you're going to love this, too. I highly recommend this, and I am beyond thrilled to see the physical copies once my library gets them. I-*screaming*-I need the next one.

As a huge fan of this series, I was delighted to discover this continuation of the universe Schwab has created. Clearly the beginning of another trilogy, Schwab sets the stage for the reign of Rhy Maresh without Kell by his side. Alternating between current events and the events immediately preceding the last book, Schwab interweaves the magic and hope of a new world with new characters ready to take up the mantle of good vs evil. One of Schwab's unique talents is the complexity of characters with fully acknowledged flaws and virtues. Another winner for Schwab!

VE Schwab does not miss. It has been years since I read the prequel series to this and readers may benefit from brushing up on it, but I very quickly found my way back into this magical world and was totally invested in what was going on. With great new characters and the return of favorites, a must read for anyone who enjoys epic fantasy stories.

Buckle up urgently for an unforgettable and marvelous ride that will transport you to realms beyond imagination! Prepare to surrender your full concentration and let go of any distractions because, my dear reader, you are about to embark on a literary journey that will not only surpass the best Dark Shades of Magic book but also rank among the finest fantasy tales of our time—perhaps even the entire decade! Believe me when I say that I am not exaggerating in the slightest.

While the length of this book may seem daunting, fear not, for not a single moment will you find yourself bored or disengaged. On the contrary, it will engulf you so completely that you'll yearn to lock yourself away in a ship cabin, blissfully surrendering to the captivating days and nights, oblivious to the ports you pass or the passage of time. The world V.E. Schwab has skillfully crafted will enthrall you, and the best part is that there are more books to come, causing your heart to race with anticipation and shouting "Ship Ahoy!" in delight.

Allow me to refresh your memory on the events that transpired seven years ago. Delilah, Kell, and Holland valiantly saved the world from the clutches of dark forces sealed within Black London, albeit at the cost of Kell's magic. In this latest installment, we journey alongside Kell and Lila as they spend years at sea, embracing the life of privateers. Kell, in an attempt to cope with his pain and enhance his combat skills, creates an alternative persona, all while navigating the labyrinthine corridors of his complicated relationship with Lila. The bond between Kell and his brother, King Rhy, grows stronger with each survival and attack they face together. When an assassin threatens the life of Rhy, both Lila and Kell find themselves drawn back to Red London, their presence necessary to safeguard the king and protect Alucard, his beloved and trusted confidant.

Amidst this backdrop, a precocious seven-year-old girl named Kosaki, once a thief, ascends to claim the throne of White London. This sudden shift in power sends ripples throughout the realms, altering the political landscape in ways unforeseen by many.

Furthermore, we are introduced to an extraordinary new character, Tess, a gifted tinkerer with a profound understanding of magical forces. With her unique ability to see the threads of magic and skillfully reweave them, she becomes an integral part of this intricate tapestry. However, the stakes escalate when a thief's son brings forth an item of immeasurable value, obtained at great personal risk. Unbeknownst to them, this object holds the potential to unlock doors that should forever remain sealed.

I find myself compelled to restrain from divulging further details, eager to grant you the space and freedom to explore the depths of this vicious, dark, yet undeniably inventive and exhilarating universe.

Prepare yourself for a cliffhanger that will leave you breathless, matching the intensity and anticipation found within the pages of its predecessors. Oh, how I wish I could indulge my cravings and delve into the remaining books of the series immediately! My anticipation knows no bounds, coursing through me with fervor and excitement.

Consider yourself warned, dear reader, for this book possesses the power to forever alter your expectations of fantasy literature. Anything you read henceforth will pale in comparison to the sheer perfection found within these pages.

I express my heartfelt gratitude to NetGalley and the Tor Publishing Group/Tor Books for generously providing me with the opportunity to experience and review this exceptional literary masterpiece. Their willingness to share the digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts is truly appreciated.

I think I just have to admit defeat and acknowledge Schwab’s writing is not for me. I never get more than an ‘it’s ok’ feel from reading any of them. I’m never connected to the characters or invested in the worldbuilding or conflict, but there has so far never been anything I hated either. Overall I just don’t get what all the fuss is about. This seems to be more of the same – competently written fantasy with a few cool ideas and turns of phrase that ultimate just did very little for me. Please take other reviews into account over mine. I am clearly not in the author’s target audience.

A really enjoyable book maybe takes a bit too long to get the story started, There are a lot of things that seemingly happened in the seven years between the last book and this one and, frankly, it sounds like it could have been a book of its own. It's not a complaint, just mentioning it because this book might take a little bit of patience to get into. Once it's going, it's such a familiar ride and you're just happy to be back in that world. Very well written. Made me want to revisit the previous novels in the series.

So happy to return to this universe, and its characters. I'm excited for the future installments but my one concern with this book is that it was setting up a somewhat similar arc as the first series. I did like -- or at least was interested by -- all the new characters introduced, and the world-building was delightful, as always.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Tor Publisher.

The Fragile Threads of Power was such a solid book for the first new book in the series.
It was perfect. Again. V.E. Schwab did it!!

+ Beautiful world writing
+ Polyamory relationship
+ Kell's development character
+ Many conflicts in different london, but it didn't get messier.

It was nice to back to Londonverse.

The Fragile Threads of Power is the fourth book in the Shades of Magic series, one that I thought was done with book three. I found the way Schwab ended the initial trilogy immensely satisfying as unlike most other young adult trilogies where the plot reaches its happily ever after, A Conjuring of Light allows the reader to enter into some of the same grief her characters must feel as they face loss in the aftermath left by Osaron, the power responsible for destroying Black London. Not every story needs to end happily; however, when I saw that Ms. Schwab was publishing The Fragile Threads of Power I knew to expect some story threads to be taken up again. Yay! If you’re reading this but haven’t yet read The Shades of Magic, you’ll definitely need to start there.

The events in this story take place seven years after A Conjuring of Light, yet the story begins with a flashback to the time seven years previous in White London when Holland returned and lay himself down at the foot of a tree in the Silver Wood after sacrificing himself to contain the chaos of unleashed magic that was Osaron in A Conjuring of Light. Magic is starting to surface in the bodies of the young people of White London, but Kosika is still young and hasn’t manifested any power, unlike her best friend Lark, who can cradle fire in his hands. This absence of power doesn’t matter to Kosika’s mother, a selfish woman who sees her daughter as something to barter in exchange for money. When men come to take Kosika, the little girl escapes to the Silver Wood, where she finds a dead man sitting at the foot of a tree as if sleeping peacefully. Under the fingers of one hand, new grass grows. Later, when Kosika’s powers do manifest, they are the powers of the antari. Just like Holland, one of her eyes turns black from corner to corner, and the Vir, the group who acknowledged Holland as the king who would bring magic back to White London, see Kosika as the child queen who will finish the job.

The story then moves to the present in Red London, where a young girl in a repair shop in the seedier part of town masquerades as an apprentice to a non-existent Master Haskin. The girl Tes is the real tinkerer, and the spools of wire and cogs aren’t even necessary for her to repair items because she can see the threads of magic, and all it takes for her to fix something is to pull at the threads to retie them or untangle them. It is a rare power, one that her mother hid from her father and sister, both avid and avaricious collectors of rare objects, as long as she could. Unfortunately, Tes had to escape from them when she accidentally revealed her power to her sister in spelling the skeleton of an owl to come to life. At Haskin’s shop, she has made herself a home, but is always looking over her shoulder for those who would see her worth only in what she could do and not who she is.

Finally, the reader meets a merchant’s son, who is also trying to escape from an unwanted future. He’d rather join the rebel group, the Hand, and do something adventurous, something noble, something that matters, instead of settling down to the safe life of a merchant. His father views his choice as treason; The Hand’s goal is to bring down Prince Rhy Maresh because they feel he’s responsible for the fact (rumor?) that the empire’s magic is failing. Now the merchant son is sent on a mission to retrieve an object from the Ferase Stras, a floating treasure trove with such a high level of security that two of the three people on the mission are killed and the merchant’s son not only drops and breaks the object, he barely makes it out alive under a magic protective cloak.

The reader is then re-introduced to the characters from the original trilogy, whose lives have been cobbled back together over the seven years that have passed. We find out what has happened to Alucard, Rhy, Kell and Lila, and understand that their complicated lives are just as or even more complicated now. Rather than retell more of the story here, suffice to say that everything weaves together eventually, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I love the way Schwab organized the story arc to introduce new characters who will have a profound and lasting impact on events, and how much of what needs accomplishing still falls to our old friends. I am a huge fan of dramatic irony; Schwab uses it to great effect in this novel as we wait for the characters to realize what we’ve known for a long time. It’s exciting and nail-biting all at once.

My only critique has to do with the object that the merchant’s son retrieves from the Ferase Stras and the use it is put to – I wonder at some of the logic around its rules of use. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I wonder if anyone else had to reread those sections to figure things out. In the end, I resigned myself to being satisfied with a simple explanation – Tes wields a magic that can make more of something than it originally was.

Reader Advisory: Some sexual content, but nothing super-explicit; gore from murder, violence; self-harm as part of the sacrifice to use/control magic by the antari.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Books for sending this book for review. Any opinions are my own; I’m not receiving any kind of douceur for my review.

“A thing given by force would always be a pale shadow of something given freely”.

It is 7-years after Delilah, Kell and Holland saved the world from the dark forces sealed in black London and magic is disappearing from Red London. Kell and Lila have been at sea for the past 7-years serving as privateers for the crown, and Kell’s magic is broken. He is unable to use it without being overcome by excruciating pain. As Rhy struggles to hold onto power in Red London, Lila and Kell must return to protect and assist him. Meanwhile, in White London, a child has seized the throne in the wake of Holland’s death. Kosika, a 7-year old Antari now sits the throne.

Jumping between events directly following A Conjuring of Light, and the present, The Fragile Threads of power continues the story from the Darker Shade of Magic trilogy, and introduces some new characters. I found this book overall stronger than the first trilogy. It had better pacing, a more cohesive story and adds more depth to the characters we know and love than the first three books combined. It also further builds out the lore of the world, making it more comprehensive and accessible.

I’ve always been a fan of Schwab’s writing, but she’s really found her stride in The Fragile Threads of Power!

VE Schwab doesn’t disappoint with this stunning new release. I could not get enough and am almost sad I got an ARC due to being finished so quickly- I have to wait so long for the next one!

I am so happy that she is expanding this world and delving into more stories within it. I recommend it to everyone who loved the previous series or would like to give it a second shot.

The London we know may be grey and ordinary, but there other Londons - ones awash in power, where magicians wield control over air, fire, water, and blood. In each one of these Londons magic ebbs and flows, burnt out to an ember in dead, black London, but slowly building in white London, where a powerful young queen is ready to sacrifice almost anything to restore its power. And in red London, where the king has no magic, a group of rebels is seeking to do whatever it takes to keep the magic steady.

Schwab has picked up the Shades of Magic world a few years later, and does a wonderful job of bringing back old beloved characters, creating new ones to care about and setting up plots and intrigue. It did take me a minute to remember where we left things, but she does a nice job of catching the reader up while introducing new developments that logically follow to where things were left off. There are some nice bits of storytelling here, especially in Kosika's white London story, told partially in flashback. And I definitely fell for Tes, though I wondered if her ending wrapped up too neatly? (though I suppose I shouldn't assume anything, given it's a duopoly!) One thing I am happy about is that while here is definitely a sequel, this didn't feel like half a story. Highly recommend.

This book was a great surprise for me. I loved the characters and the story was a great blend of magic and adventure - a great success in world-building and immersive storytelling! The only thing that made me hesitate at first was its length, but it moved quickly and I really enjoyed it!

It was so nice to be back in the magical world of Kell, Lila, Rhy, Alucard and the whole gang. I was intrigued by the storyline but also felt somehow that not much happened. V.E. Schwab is known for her slow-world building and if you were a fan of shades of magic, that deep seeded love of the characters pulls you right back in. I will definetly continue reading these series but I have no clue where it is headed. This felt like a welcome home, sweet and almost melancholy, yet slow and winding so the next one can unravel somewhere completely unexpected.

Thank you to Netgalley and Toor Books for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

Where do I start about this absolute work of art?? Only VE Schwab could return to such an iconic and beloved world and not have a single miss in the entire book. I had been so worried that it wouldn't live up to my hopes, and then it lived up to everything I had ever wanted and so so much more. Her return to the Londons is so spectacular, you will not want to miss it.

I laughed, I cried tears of sorrow and tears of joy, I gasped, I screamed at the book, and every single second I felt the warm and fuzzy joy of having come home after a long journey.

The stories of our beloved characters continue in such a dazzling way, and I can't wait to see where it all goes. They are still growing and learning about themselves and their world, and they are so precious the entire time. The new characters are just as compelling and I found myself invested in them in a way I hadn't expected.

Every word is perfectly crafted for the most emotion and impact I've read in a long time.
Come home to London, you won't regret it.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for an eARC of this book.

A Darker Shade of Magic is one of my favorite series so I was overjoyed to hear V is writing a sequel series. Going in I thought our main crew (Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard) would be secondary characters but that is not the case. And that might be my biggest issue with this book. We are introduced to two new characters, but then we're overloaded with flashbacks of what happened to the main crew in the past seven years. This could have been pulled and turned into a cute novella to make the pacing of this book work better.

The story really picks up once we return to White London to see what happens to Kosika and get more backstory on Tes at about the halfway mark. And from then on I loved it. Action. Mystery. Lila making poor decisions but being confident and awesome anyway. With a hundred pages left, I didn't know how everything was going to get wrapped up, but V is a master at her craft and somehow brought closure to the main plot while leaving enough questions for more. I wish we could have gotten one more scene with Kell to see how he was dealing with what happened to him, but that's just because he's my favorite character and I love him.

Be prepared to have all the threads of your heart pulled in all directions as you embark on another adventure with Lila and Kell. Along with some new and old favorites.

Step back into the four worlds, with and without magic, that have remained sealed....until now. A new antari named Kosika enters into our lives, along with a lot of troublesome things happening around her.

I absolutely adore Kell and Lila and trust me, you will remain on edge to see if Kell can truly control and gain his powers back, before the threads of his magic are torn apart, forever.

This was a great continuation of the Shades of Magic world. Set seven years after A Conjuring of Light, I enjoyed the introduction of new characters from three Londons and look forward to more stories in this sequel trilogy. Though it's not necessary to have read the Shades of Magic trilogy to enjoy this book, I feel doing so would add to the reader's understanding of the main characters' emotional development and their actions, especially those of Lila and Kell. I thoroughly enjoy V.E. Schwab's world-building and eagerly anticipate the next two installments.

This is a well written addition to the Shades of Magic universe, and I can’t wait to read more. I can’t wait to read more for a couple reasons: first, this book did a lot of building, but only barely reached a climax. (On the other hand, there was so much going on in this book, it easily could have been split into two or more.) Second, there were so many characters, it took me a while to get a handle on who they were and why I should care. All the ones you would expect are back, plus a flurry of new characters. I am not sure that folks who haven’t read the Shades of Magic series will be able to follow this new series. It’s also a difficult plot to summarize—partially because it’s definitely not over, but also because things keep flashing back and moving across viewpoints. But Schwab is pretty masterful here, and it’s easy to trust it’s building to something. After I was done reading, I kept wanting to pick it up and dive back into her world.

Seven book years and six actual years after the explosive events that concluded the Shades of Magic trilogy, V.E. Schwab takes readers back to that fascinating world. A new Antari and a new generation of magicians is learning to wield startling powers, but how will they use their magic, for good or ill?

Tes works in a repair shop in Red London. Her magic is similar to Captain Alucard Emery's, but he can only see threads of magic. Tes can actually manipulate them, and that's what makes her so good at repairing magical objects. It's unclear whether she can heal people whose magic has gone awry. A box that can create doors between the three Londons is on the loose after being stolen, and there are those who will commit any crime to get their hands on it.

I liked the Tes/Red London storyline much better than the White London storyline, which I found myself skimming through to get back to Red London. Nevertheless, Schwab continues to be one of the most imaginative fantasy writers in the literary world and I'm thrilled that this is only Book One! I've missed these three Londons and these characters immensely, especially Lila Bard.