I'm starting this reading year off with a bang! This book just wrecked me... that ending... I was planning on reading something else before I picked up the last book in this trilogy, but I have to know, no, I NEED to know how this ends!!!

The story picks up 4 months after A Darker Shade of Magic ends and we continue to follow Lila, aboard a pirate ship and Kell, who is trying to come to grips with the new way his life is bonded to his brother Rhy's.

This book was a little slow to start, but it still gripped me from the very first page. Even though nothing really happened, I could not put this down. This is such a character driven story to begin with, that you can't help but want to know more! In the second half of the book, the Games start and that's were the action starts. I loved the way Victoria Schwab build the tension between characters in this book. The strain between Kell and the King and Queen, the way the relationship between Lila and Alucard strengthens. It's just so well done, you can't help but feel for all of them! You hurt when Kell hurts, you feel excited when Lila is excited and when they're finally reunited and have their moment at the ball... I had to stop reading just to cool down a little. I live for this pairing! And don't even get me started on the tension between Rhy and Alucard... whoa!

I'm changing my reading plans, I have to read the next book asap!