A Shadow Bright and Burning

Hey sorcerers,

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! If you aren't American, Happy Wednesday! Hope you're having a nice time. I'm in a place where I'm stressed but calm at the same time. It's pretty wild.

As you may have guessed, I've finished A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess. Now you may be wondering, bro, what is this book about. Well. It's about my girl Henrietta Howel (of no relation to Daniel Howel) being a fire torch. They all believe her to be the prophesied lady sorcerer that will save England because she can set herself ablaze and not be harmed. Unfortunately, they're wrong. Then there are the men. She is living with a bunch of other sorcerer trainees, all of which are male because "women are too fragile to wield magic" and she begins to feel things whilst trying to keep up the jig.

When the legit book summary said three men will entice her or whatever, I was like. Bruh. Are y'all really out here trying to create the love square? The love quadrilateral? No. Not acceptable. Then I read it, and everything was okay. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out which boy was who. The summary reads, "One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her." This is all in reference to her heart I think? Or her as a person. Either way, I know who challenged, but I'm not quite sure who betrayed her, because the one who betrayed her was not part of the group I don't think. You see how I avoided that spoiler? Masterful.

Let me talk about some people. Rook? Terrifying. He is literally going to kill people in the future books. On my mama. George? A prick. Then a sweetheart. I love him, but earlier he could suck my left dick. Do like how he developed as a character. Julian, I wanted to love, but I knew he was bad for my heart. He's a lot. Wolff and Lambe? I knew it. That's all I have to say. Arthur was sweet. I liked him. Henrietta was bad, like in the black way, not in the negative way. She was just trying to protect and do right by her friend. That's all she wanted and I respect that loyalty. The ending? I have mixed feelings. Between the loyalty and desperation and how I know he will kill people. But anyway.

I didn't read another subpar book! It wasn't as heart-wrenchingly beautiful as Strange the Dreamer, but it wasn't bad. I enjoyed it. Ready to read the next one. On time this time.

Ship:. . . ummmm, Wolff and Lambe
Snake: shhhh spoilers

8/10
~Book Panda