Tag Archive | Bright Blaze of Magic

REVIEW: Bright Blaze of Magic by Jennifer Estep

Bright Blaze of Magic by Jennifer Estep

Series: Black Blade #3

Read: April 8 – 21, 2016

Format: ARC Ebook (Kindle)

My Book Rating: 5 Stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

I. LOVE. Jennifer Estep’s Black Blade series. Love it. I mean, look at this cover? See how amazing it is? The book inside is just as amazing!

Lila lives in Cloudburst Falls, a town in Virginia where monsters roam free, and the whole city is run by The Families (they’re like mob families, but they’re not all bad). Those in the families also possess varying degrees of various magical powers; enhanced strength or speed, the ability to see in the dark, or if you’re Lila, Transference: the ability to take others magic into herself and use it to enhance her own strength, speed, etc.

Lila is also a thief, but she’s a good person. She’s joined up with the Sinclair family and is acting as bodyguard to Devon, son of the head of the family, Claudia.

This book is the third in the series, and while I felt that book 2 could have been read without reading book 1, I don’t think that’s the case with book 3. There is so much that happens in those first two books that the reader won’t get the full enjoyment without reading the previous books .(Or at least book 2.) This book brings the overall story arc to an end, but also leaves the door open for more books should the author choose to write them. (I hope she does!)

Lila has a lot of history with The Families. Years ago her mother fled from them for her own safety. Upon her death, Lila stuck around town, hell bent on someday getting revenge and taking down the man who killed her, Victor Draconi.

This book starts out with a bang. Lila, Devon, and their friend Felix are on a mission to steal from Victor. The next day, all hell breaks loose. Seriously, this book did not waste time with unnecessary set up, we’re thrown right into the thick of things.

I loved the relationship development between Lila and Devon in this book. I also warmed up a little more to Claudia, who I was on the fence about before.

The action in this book is awesome. Some of the movement descriptions were quite repetitive, but that’s probably true to life. If it works, keep doing it, right? And there was no shortage of fighting.

My favorite character, hands down, is the Lochness who lives under the Lochness Bridge. I love that Lila treats the monsters with respect, paying the Lochness his toll and the tree trolls their chocolate bars. The monsters have played an important role in the previous books, and that’s the same here too.

I love this entire series. I recommend it for those who like fast paced, action filled clean YA stories. (There’s kissing, but that’s it. And it’s minimal. It probably could stand for more kissing! There’s plenty of violence, but nothing too graphic.)

Go now and read this series. Seriously. Bright Blaze of Magic releases Tuesday April 26, 2016. That gives you a few days to binge read the first two book!