Bright Blaze of Magic- Jennifer Estep

 

Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade) 

Apr 26, 2016 by Jennifer Estep

Book Description:"The characters are as fantastic as Estep fans have come to expect." – RT Book Reviews

Bad Things Always Come In Threes…

As a thief, I'm good at three things: hiding in the shadows, getting in and out unseen, and uncovering secrets. I put these skills to work for the Sinclair Family, one of the magical mobs that run the tourist town of Cloudburst Falls. 

Everyone knows Victor Draconi wants to take over all the other Families--and kill every last Sinclair. What they don't know is that I'm on to him, and no way will I let the man who murdered my mom get away with hurting all the other people I care about. Especially when I've got places to break into, stuff to steal, and Devon Sinclair fighting right by my side… 

"An adventurous ride you will never want to get off." --#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout on Cold Burn of Magic

This book was not holding my attention at all until I realized that this was the last book in a trilogy –silly me -I thought it was going to be a fairly long running series.  I had erroneously thought that this book was falling into the same pattern as Esteps adult series and that is to write the same story over and over with little changed.  However once I found out this was the last book I re-read what I had already read and the story made more sense…mostly.

This book is the biggie – the crew is going to have a huge showdown with the Draconi family and surprises will abound.  (I don’t want to add too many spoilers to this review) Naturally Victor will cheat, Lila will save the day and we will have our happily ever after –or at least for now.  (this is a YA after all).

What totally bothered me about this book is that Ms Estep did what so many other author’s do when backed into a corner –add new tricks to the main character, in this case add a new sort of magic to Lila when she should have died.  I’m not always a fan of this concept.  Another thing----------------POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT----------------- there is an instance when Devon had the chance to use his compulsion magic on Victor and Devon did not.  I understand that this author likes to make the women the stronger characters, but I thought this was just so silly that I was tempted to throw my Kindle across the room. This was the perfect time for Devon to step up to the plate and he just totally chickened out.  I mean his magic so powerful and dangerous that Lila was hired as his body guard because other families wanted him and he just sits there like a wet noodle------------------------END POSSIBLE SPOILER----------------------

All in all it was a satisfying ending to this trilogy that would have been tons better had the author not felt the need to use so much back-story.