A Shadow Bright and Burning Review:

Where can I even begin with this book?

So to start off I know I said that I would post the book club post yesterday because I knew I would finish this book soon, but I honestly did not think I would finish it this fast. What can I say? It was just a fantastic book, and I could not put it down! This book was super good and just the perfect mix of fantasy and historical fiction for it to be intriguing yet also have really well planned world building. I especially enjoyed the characters and settings of this book, as well as the plot.

Okay so, A Shadow Bright and Burning has been on my to-read list since June, when I first created a Netgalley account. I first saw it on there as an egalley and obviously freaked out. It was the only book that caught my eye and I really wanted to get accepted for. I absolutely adore ya fantasy and I enjoy a good Victorian novel too. I also saw that on the cover, Victoria Aveyard read this book and said it was good, so I obviously got super excited. I love love love the Red Queen Series and can't wait for King's Cage to come out. Then I never really got accepted or declined for this book which was upsetting, I'm still pending on Netgalley ;(, but it's okay because I got a hardcopy arc of it. Honestly, if you read my escape room post you know how freaking excited I was to finally get my hands on this book. The only reason I didn't read it sooner was because I was reading Empire of Storms which came out two weeks prior to this book. 

Okay so now that you all know the whole story behind this book, let's actually go into the review. This book is about a girl named Henrietta Howel who is thought to be the prophesied one and treated as such. It takes place in Victorian London in a society where sorcerers have the most power, and protect the crown from harm, as well as fight in battles. In this world there are also magicians and witches who are frowned upon because of a terrible past, yet these people are truly no less powerful than sorcerers they're just outlawed, and most were executed. In this world there are also monsters the liked you've never seen before, and I'm not kidding. There are the 7 ancients which are like the very terrible 7 things that come from another world and honestly have no goal other than to raise an army and kill everyone. SO this is a story of Henrietta being told that she was a sorcerer because of her fire powers, she can light herself on fire ( hmhm Aelin reference, ;) ), and her being trained to be presented before the queen. She makes many friends along the way and meets many people who aren't always as they seem at first glance. She also has a best friend named Rook who she protects at all costs and who tries to protect her as well. So now I'm gonna go into more detail regarding the characters, setting, and plot. Also this book actually reminded me a lot of the Clockwork Angel series, which was amazing, because it also had what you can call magicians in it, a character named Magnus (Bane), and took place in London when Queen Victoria ruled just like this book.

Okay so let's start off with the characters. The characters in this book were probably the best part. I really liked how much some characters really developed throughout the story. I especially liked George Blackwood, for some reason I really pictured him as a Henry and really wish that that was his name. But it didn't really matter because for some reason everybody used everyone else's last name, and this really bothered me with Blackwood because it just sounds so weird if you call him that, but it's still better than George. Lol. Anyways I know he was the typical prince charming, bad at first, and then gets better, but in my opinion he was just so sweet and understanding. He just appeared mean at first because he has very high moral codes and stood by them, he really cared about his land and people and didn't want them to get hurt. Closer to the end though, he defended Howel's rights as a woman and that's the point when I think he changed the most. When he told off Magnus, and said that Henrietta was worth 10 of him, I just sighed and though of Cal for some reason. Blackwood and Howel's relationship for some reason really reminds me of Cal and Mare's relationship from Glass Sword. It wasn't great at one point but later got to be a lot more towards friendship and trusting each other with their deepest secrets. Blackwood really changed from his original image of being a self-centered, spoiled, disbelieving, and rude person to actually being one of Henrietta's closest friends, and I knew all along. I believed... Aha. Anyways just one thing I wanted to finish mentioning was that names some of them really bothered me, I think when the last name was short it was okay like Howel and Magnus, especially Magnus, but when it was Blackwood I would really prefer to call him like Henry or something. Henrietta actually called Rook, Rook and George's sister, Eliza not Blackwood. 

So that's a paragraph on my obviously favourite character Blackwood/George. Now I also really like the other boys in her friend group. There was Lambe who was like a seer, he could see things I guess in other places maybe the future, it wasn't really explained. Then there was Wolff, who was a big muscular guy who was very close to Lambe. There was also Dee, who was closer to Howel than the other two and danced with her a few times. And then there's Magnus. I'm no even sure where to start with him. Magnus is the first guy of the 5 to show Henrietta/Howel kindness, he was very nice to her and believed in her. Even though he was an overall nice guy, he did have some faults. For instance, he was a guy who was used to getting what he wanted, and a lot of the time that was girls. He was funny and sweet but he was also described as being pretty hot and just being one of those guys who went after a lot of girls. So at times in the novel I didn't really like him that much. Another really important character was Rook, he was a sweet guy and I never knew where he and Henrietta stood towards each other. At first they are amazingly close friends, who have always looked out for each other, but later I think they start progressing into something more. Tbh Rook kind of scares me sometimes, and he's one of the unclean. The unclean are people who have encountered one of the 7 different monsters called Ancients. They have scars and sometimes are broken, but Rook is not; however Rook does have some really strange connection with the Ancient that left him with scars. There is another character that I really liked at first but later not so much, it was Agrippa. Master Agrippa was the resident sorcerer who "rescued" Henrietta from her, basically, orphanage and brought her to be trained. He is very sweet and emotional, but I also think that loosing his daughter played a big part in harming his mental health. One other character played a major role in this novel; Jenkins Hargrove. He was one of the first people to help Henrietta and he is a magician. Can't say much more without spoilers.

So as you can see there are a number of very interesting and highly enjoyable characters. All these characters are important but what makes it all work is obviously the main character, Henrietta Howel. She is a brave girl who has always felt out of place in her society as a woman, she wants to explore and use her talents for good. She cares about the poor and always tries to be honest and understanding. I absolutely loved her role, and she is an amazing role model. Especially since she completely defies all the rules for woman at that time. She stands up for herself and never gives up, she also wears means clothing at time and never forgets about people less fortunate than her. 

As I mentioned before the setting is Victorian London with sorcerers, magicians, monsters and witches. This gives the book life and makes it more interesting but also more real. I absolutely loved all the different places they went; the woods and gardens, Agrippa's house, the theatre, the prisons, the countryside, and Brimthorn (Howel's original orphanage/home). Everything fit the story just right and all of it made the story only better. The plot of this book was very well planned and written out as well. At first the main focus was on getting commended and being initiated into the English Army, to help fight the Ancients but all the different things that happened and obstacles that Henrietta had to overcome to get there made up the story plot. 

Overall, as you can probably tell this book was a long time coming and I really enjoyed it. It is a must read and it's super easy to get into, I honestly couldn't put it down! I really enjoyed this book and can't wait until book two in this amazing Kingdom of Fire series. This book is written by Jessica Cluess and published by Random House. It is 404 pages and I would give it an 8.7/10 stars. As I said I really enjoyed it but at times I felt like the writing wasn't clear or proper, but other than that it was a wonderful read. Character and world development was phenomenal and I would recommend this book to any Ya fiction, fantasy, or historical fiction lover. And as I mentioned before one way or another I received an arc of this book so I'm super thankful for that. Thank you so much to my library and Random House. And thank you so much to all my wonderful readers!      - <3 Kat

(I especially liked when at the end Henriette's official house sigil is a burning rose, so cute and fitting!)