This story picks up just where Spellbreaker left off:  Unwittingly controlled by dark magic, Elsie and Ogden had perpetrated crimes they never would’ve condoned on their own accord and aided a murderer. Now, their ultimate goal is to stop any further damage to the magical community and bring that murderer to justice.  The stakes are high for this endeavor because bringing down the culprit might also incriminate themselves. 

If you’re expecting a dark, gritty chase to bring down a heinous assassin, you won’t find it here. The main storyline takes a backseat to the most powerful of magical spells- love. As the chase for the culprit unfolds, so also does the romantic back and forth between Elsie and Bachus. 

The author has created an interesting, well developed magical world that is believable, and the idea of a murderer devastating that community is compelling. Partnering that with the likeable characters should have made for a successful duology. But regrettably, that is not the case. What this author succeeded at in character development and creation of a magic world, she equally failed at in execution and of the plot. This potential of this book, ultimately, fell flat. 

For one, I found the pacing of this book to be off. Important scenes that would’ve benefited from vivid detail were quickly wrapped up while scenes that were minuscule in importance droned on. Also, I found this book quite repetitive (both of itself and of the previous installment). Why tell the reader something once when it can be repeated over and over and over? 

This duology would’ve been better served as a single, lengthy novel. Splitting it into two books made the storyline less inviting, more convoluted, and leant itself towards boring repetitions. Condensing the superfluous, repetitive material would have allowed the core plot to shine. The charm I found in the first installment was unfortunately lost in this one.