I enjoyed this! I need to read her other books so that I can become immersed in this world! It was fast paced and fascinating!

This book had a lot to live up to and it did not disappoint. Such a fun and engaging return to Red London. Loved the new characters and of course the old. The author’s writing and storytelling is such a treat.

The long awaited continuation of one of my favorite series did not disappoint. Fans of VE Schwab rejoice 🙌 it’s the start of a new/old series worthy of its predecessors. Plenty of action and banter and I just had the time of my life reading.

The Fragile Threads of Power is a fantasy adventure and book one in the Threads of Power series. This book takes place in the Shades of Magic universe and starts 7 years after the ending of A Conjuring of Light. The doors between worlds have been closed and the magical kingdoms are separated. But a young magician with a unique ability might be able to reunite them all

This book was an absolutely amazing read!! First of all, I absolutely loved seeing the return of all my favorite characters from the Shades of Magic series - Lila, Alucard, Rhy and of course Kell! It felt like a new story and an extended epilogue at the same time! Seven years has brought a lot to these characters and it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows - some aspects in their lives were so hard to read but I loved their continued presence and growth

Outside of old friends, the new characters were just as engaging! Tes is an intriguing character and I loved what she brought to this world. The world building continued to expand the world of the Shades of Magic and I loved everything about this book!

If you couldn’t tell already, this was a five star read for me! I loved returning to this world and characters that I love so much, while also meeting new ones! This book also had some romance but no on page smut so one flame for spice

If you’re a fan of beautiful magic systems, beautifully broken characters and all the found family vibes, then absolutely pick up this series. Even though this is a separate series and can technically be read independently, I’d absolutely recommend reading the Shades of Magic trilogy first as there’s quite a bit of overlap.

Loved the Shades of Magic series and love returning to the same characters after the last book. This is a big one and I am so happy it won’t end quickly! And it's a series so it will continue.
It’s so fun to see Alucard, Kell, Lila and Rhy again. They are still struggling with the effects of the last books but continuing on as well as they can. Love the Londons! And there are new characters and old/new villains. These alternate realities are all feel like a garden. Some plants can reach the sun, but others are in the shadows with no nutrients.

This magic system is so unique and familiar from the other series, but it felt like there were different variations. I loved to see their romantic relationships progress and how they are now comfortable with each other and a bit of the story in between since it would go from 7 years ago to now. There were young characters that were very powerful, and this was setting up them in the different London's.
If you do read this book, make sure you read the Shades of Magic trilogy first or else this won’t make sense.

Thank you torbooks for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you Tor Publishing Group for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

WOW! What a ride! I am happy to report FRAGILE THREADS was an amazing continuation of the beloved Shades of Magic trilogy. I felt like this was a very appropriate continuation of the series because we still get to follow the characters we have all come to love but we are also introduced to some new characters who were like a breath of fresh air! I enjoyed the new perspectives, Tes and Kosika, a lot more than I thought I would. The way Schwab wove in their stories with the original cast was brilliant.

This is not a huge knock on the book but I find that Schwab tends to struggle with pacing. FRAGILE THREADS is almost 650 pages and with the time jumps and the changing POVs, there's bound to be a lull somewhere. It didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book but I think it's worth noting if you're someone who has struggled with Schwab's pacing in the past.

I'm super excited to see what the rest of this series has in store!

4.5/5 stars

V.E. Schwab’s books are some of my top tier books I’ve ever read. I was so excited when this book was announced and it didn’t disappoint at all!

As a huge fan of the Darker Shades of Magic series, I was super excited to just back into Schwab's 4 Londons. Seven years after the conclusion of "A Conjuring of Light", we find our favorite Antari, royalty, and a few new cast members adventuring through the 3 remaining Londons. In Red London we spend our time between the old favorites who are trying to hold Rhy Maresh to the crown amidst a potential overthrow by a group known as The Hand. In White London, a new Antari has risen after the death of Holland. Kosika, a young street girl when Holland was killed, has grown into the queen that white London loves. But now that seven years has passed, can she also hold the crown?

I love the duality that Schwab has so expertly written into this universe. After the conclusion of the Shades of Magic series, I thought we would never get to return and I was so excited for not just 1, but 3 more books taking us back into the Londons.

Once there were four worlds, all powered by magic and connected by the city of London. After a magical contagion that spread through all of the worlds a magic wall was erected to prevent travel between them and contain the corruption. Black London was the source of the event, and is dead now; most of this story takes place in Grey London, White London, and Red London, all of which still have varying degrees of magic. The narrative just drops the reader into the situation, which I found confusing at first.

But before long everything becomes clearer, and each of the Londons has a distinct cast of characters with their own problems, as well as powerful magicians (who take center stage most of the time). Red London is flourishing and powerful. It has a mostly magical monarchy, along with Delilah Bard (a powerful magician who travels between there and Grey London) and Tes, a young runaway with a unique ability to see and manipulate magic (which manifests in the threads of the title).

Kosika is the child queen of White London, which is hanging onto magic at the cost of blood. She is accompanied by a dead former king, and has learned how to travel between worlds. In the end they have a plan to restart Black London and the rest of the worlds: a strong conclusion to the first installment.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy.

This author does such an amazing job with world building. You always feel like you’re right there with the characters. I will say at times it did feel like other fantasy worlds influenced some of the elements in this story. But overall, really well done and enjoyable.

It took me a while to get invested into The Fragile Threads of Power -- it begins with a brand new character, and I really wanted to get back to Kell and Lila and Rhy and Alucard. I imagine it would be different if I were reading this as a standalone, apart from The Darker Shade of Magic? But that feeling quickly abated and I became invested in the new faces, and in the back and forth between the present and filling in the past seven years.

The Fragile Threads of Power is a glorious book, with a lot of characters and a lot of moving pieces and plots. Schwab's world building is top notch, and the story weaves around so gracefully and magically. I loved it.

I honestly loved the dynamic between all the characters. I have always loved and enjoyed Schwab’s previous work but this definitely seems to be on the top and a new personal favourite, I find myself amongst yet another book by the author that I couldn’t get enough of.

I really love the epic fantasy world created by Schwab. It was just wonderful to be back in the world of A Darker Shade of Magic. This book had all the elements I enjoy in Schwabs books the intricate worldbuilding, the wonderful storytelling that grabs you from the beginning. The mix of the old characters we love, who are now older and wiser with the new characters with their unique narratives that are also interesting and intriguing. I absolutely loved this addition and cannot wait for the rest of the trilogy.

“A head gets lost, but a heart knows home.” V.E Schwab is a master storyteller. The Fragile Threads of Power is wonderfully rich and magical. The story keeps up the momentum and never slows. I loved the characters and the magic system. Definitely worth a read for any fantasy lover.

Another gripping read by V.E. Schwab!

When the remaining Londons collide, three remarkable magicians must come together to keep the worlds from unraveling.

If you were a Shades of Magic fan, do yourself a favor and pick up The Fragile Threads of Power! Dark, twisty, and captivating -- everything you could want in a V.E. Schwab read!

VE Schwab can do no wrong. This was another 5 star book for me for them. It’s always scary going into a new story within an established world, but she does it so beautifully. We had such a good mix of our old characters and introduced to the new ones.

And of course all of the new characters fit right in this story. They’re so well written and their stories are so interesting, I just wanted to keep reading to learn about them as much as see what Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard are doing within this post ADSOM world.

I cannot wait to read the rest of the series, I love the setup to a new conflict and more villains as well as an old morally grey one.

My favorite parts were Kell and Lila. Their scenes made me so emotional. Kell had so much growth in this book - losing his magic and rather than letting it beat him, he adapted and grew to a stronger person, not just an Antari. I also cannot wait to see what happens to Tes, I think where she is left off is going to tie in some really cool storylines later.

Overall, this book was amazing. No one can write slow burn like Schwab and keep me absolutely enthralled the entire time.

Thank you @torbooks and @macmillanaudio for the audiobook arc! The audio was 10/10!! Narration was consistent to match the narrators from the first series and then Tes’ narrator was a great addition!

Love this boook!!! I haven't read the Shades of Magic series and now I probably should. Devoured this book in a day!

There is something so lethargic about being back in the midst of these characters and their various shades of London. The new characters fit into this world like a glove and I'm loving getting to know them. V.E. Schwab is as brilliant as ever and has made coming back to this world like coming home.

I would 100% recommend reading the Shadoes of Magic trilogy before Threads of Power. It is hard picking up a new book knowing that it is extending off of a series you loved deeply. I was nervous I would be dissapointed or just couldn't love the new characters the same as I did in Shades of Magic but I was pleasantly surprised. There is a lot more of Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alacard than I expected and we get a lot of flashbacks to various events that bridge Shades of Magic to Threads of Power. In this sense I think that TFToP does a great job in bringing us up to speed but I might be a bit selfish here, I wish we would have gotten a standalone or something to bridge these books together. We spend so much time flashing back and forth that it takes away from the new and current characters. Schwab introduces us to a new cast of characters that, for the most part, you can't help but love. I am intrigued by the more in depth look into the magic system that weaves the London's together and seeing other gifts being expanded upon has made returning to the world interesting and engaging. I look forward to the rest of the series and really anything V.E. Schwab puts out into the world.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance readers copy.

The long awaited sequel/new series set in VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic universe. Coming back to the series after time away must have been difficult, but Schwab pulls it off gloriously. With characters old and new, they weave a wonderful tale that brings me back into the world and sets me up to experience new wonders (and pain) alongside our characters.

“All power has its limits. You are still a servant of magic, and magic demands balance.”

In this new start to a series—a sequel to the Shades of Magic trilogy—V.E. Schwab transports us back into a world full of magic. It’s been seven years since the three powerful Antari: Kell, Lila, and Holland fought against Osaron to save the different worlds that each of them came from. Now there’s new characters and new dangers that threaten the different Londons.

Red London is ruled by Rhy Maresh, married to queen Nadiya with whom she has a mischievous little girl, Ren, heir to the throne. However, Rhy’s true love is Alucard, his consort. There’s signs of rebellion and conspiracy that threaten the throne coming from the Hand, a secret group of traitors who believe Rhy’s lack of magical powers will cause their world to also lose their magic.

White London is ruled by Kosika, an Antari kid who is devoted to Holland. She leads her people to take part in rituals in order to restore the magic in their world. However, she keeps summoning a power that she may not be able to fully control nor understand.

Kell and Lila have been at sea for years on different missions. After visiting the Floating Market, they’re entrusted with the challenge of retrieving a powerful object stolen by unknown forces. An artefact that could destroy what they risked their lives for to protect in the last trilogy.

In the midst of all this there’s Tes, one of the new characters, a young girl with a special power to fix broken things (and sometimes make them better). She will find herself intertwined in the affairs of the Antari, the thieves and the traitors. However, only her power will be able to weave together the threads of power.

In The Fragile Threads of Power, Schwab continues to draw the readers into a magical and adventurous storyline. It’s a book that’s heavily focused on characters and that’s an introduction to a new grand journey. The book is extremely long which allows for a slower burn. And, whilst the pace of the book is quite slow in the first half, it picks up in the second half and everything becomes more interesting and action-packed from that point onwards. The slow pace however is understandable due to it being the first installment of a new series that needs to explain what happened in the seven year gap between the previous trilogy and this one. The plotting and suspense throughout are truly masterful though. The author truly balances well each storyline and each character’s journey.

Readers will be able to reconnect with Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard but in a more mature way. These characters have grown and parts of their personalities have changed from the previous series. Focusing on Kell and Lila, we see a Kell that’s truly struggling with his self worth and his shattered magic. On the other hand, Lila is still as cunning and fierce as always but we do see that Kell is her soft spot and that she deeply cares for him, in her own way, that is. Since characters are more mature, there are also some slightly suggestive scenes despite romance not being a central point of the story.

As for the new characters, both Tes and Kosika are quite interesting. Despite both of them being kids/teenagers they’re extremely strong and capable. They’ve gone through a fair share of struggles to get to where they are. Kosika’s story is still not fully developed in this book; however, we do see Tes having a heavy background and a powerful and important position in the story. She is a character that readers will truly love. It will be interesting to see these character’s journey and growth throughout the series.

Overall, Schwab created a solid fabulous start to a new fantasy series. With themes of self discovery of one’s power, strong magic, mystery, and found family, The Fragile Threads of Power is a perfect read for those who missed the worlds of the Shades of Magic series and its characters.