great

i am loving this series,can not wait for the next credit so i can see how it ends. the characters are so engaging and the narration is amazing. two thumbs up!!

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Just keeps getting better

I adore this series, especially the audio book. The narration is amazing . I can't wait to listen to the next one.

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Can't Wait to Start the Next Book

This is the kind of book I love. Both funny and heart wrenching.

Best narrator I have ever heard. Every character had a distinct voice which matched their personality perfectly.

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delightful!

hilarious and amazing. tender and heartbreaking! just beautifully insane. loved every second and the narrator just adds so much magic to this story!

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awesome!!!!!!

I don't have words for how awesome this book and the series is. Thank you again TJ Kline.
Narration is perfect thank you Michael Lesley!!!

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An amazing performance of a fantastic book!

Once again, the combination of TJ Klune's words and Michael Lesley's voice is absolute perfection!

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MARVELOUS!

it's was marvelous! I had a blast whit that story! thank you SSSSSOOOOO much Tj!

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AMAZING

The Consumption of Magic by TJ Klune is the third book in the Tales of Verania series. Picking up after A Destiny of Dragons, we see Sam reunite with Morgan of Shadows and Randall. There, he learns that Myrin left with him scars that speak of his true plans for Sam and the Kingdom of Verania, and they aren’t good.

Time seems to be running out, and Sam, along with his band of merry misfits that we all know and love so much, must travel to the snowy mountains in the north and the heart of the Dark Woods to convince the remaining dragons to stand with him against Myrin. Only, the trip is shrouded in secrets, and the truth manages to fight free.

As time goes on, it becomes clearer and clearer that there is more at play than Sam could have ever imagined.

Thematically, this book lines up much more with A Destiny of Dragons than it does with The Lightning-Struck Heart — which is something that I am exceptionally glad for. Following the more series tone of the second book, The Consumption of Magic follows Sam and co. as he continues working towards his destiny one (super cool) dragon at a time.

The first part of this novel that FLOORED me was the prologue, which genuinely punched me in the freaking heart for some reason? We know the story of how Sam turned the boys into stone, how Morgan showed up and brought him to the castle, but we’d only ever seen glimpses of that moment. In this prologue, we get to see exactly what happened the first (and then second) time Sam ever meets Morgan of Shadows, and it was so preciously tender that it made my heart hurt in the best of ways. We got to see how this amazing bond was first formed, and there was something about past-Sam’s ever-present optimism that made my heart literally feel like it was melting.

(And holy fucking shit, but knowing what I know now, the prologue hurts even fucking more. Klune, what the frickity fuck??? WHAT THE FRICKITY FUCK!!!)

Now, I have to admit that I sorta forgot what happened in the rest of this novel. And not because it was bad — in fact, I think this is likely my favourite part of the series so far — but just because A Destiny of Dragons bled SO fluidly into The Consumption of Magic that I couldn’t totally remember where one ended and one began. There is also a distinctly magical feel to this book that really wrapped me in, and it all flowed so well that it was like one long smile in my mind.

I will say that this novel feels like it is steeped in dialogue. When I think back, this is one thing that really stood out to me, however, it never feels dragged out. Klune has done something incredibly with this series where he’s written books that are arguably way too long without ever feeling like that.

Even though some bits of this novel bled together, there were a few parts that really stuck out to me specifically!

Just like with A Destiny of Dragons, the third book in this series expands even further on the magic system that’s so alive in these books. It was interesting to see a little more about how this magic system works, but also to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a wizard, what grimoires are all about, etc etc etc. As Sam’s power seems to grow endlessly, we get to learn more and more about magic which I really enjoyed.

Klune ALWAYS crafts vibrant worlds that are full of life, and he does an increasingly good job of doing so in this series.

One of my FAVOURITE parts of this book was the way that Sam was forced to face the truth after so long. While SO much of him is bravado, the plentiful secrets that Sam keeps are actually a huge part of his character. I loved the way that Klune developed Sam’s character, and even if he was forced to be open about his worries and fears, I think it did his characterization a great service.

I also liked how this created a hurdle for Sam and Ryan to work through. It was interesting to see Sam try to talk his way out of the very serious conversation they had to have, and I really enjoyed the way Ryan was able to hold Sam to task while also still being clear that he cared for him. These two have some serious, crazily mature communication going on and it is SO refreshing.

Lady Tina DeSilva plays a larger role in this book than I was expecting, which was actually something I loved for very strange reasons.

While she is absolutely terrible, I have actually decided to view Lady Tina DeSilva as a CONCEPT as opposed to a character, because I think that makes her A LOT more interesting.

As an allegory for fannish-stanning gone too far, I think Lady Tina DeSilva is EXCELLENT. While this may be the furthest thing from Klune’s intention, I actually think that he crafted a character who works EXCELLENTLY as an example to all fans. Because Lady Tina DeSilva is simply a stan gone mad; she is what happens when fans forget that the people, especially when it’s real people they’re stanning, are… just that.

When fan’s blur this line between what is and isn’t appropriate, when they mistake the para-social relationship public figures craft for genuine intimacy, things get, at best, murky, and at worst, dangerous.

The problem with stanning a real person is that they are just that — a real person with flaws and fallacies, and they are NEVER going to be perfect. Even further than that, she shows us what happens when fans forget that the people they stan are REAL people. That means they have their own lives and thoughts and feelings that we aren’t, will never be, and SHOULDN’T be privy to.

I know that this is mostly a rant about stanning now, but I’ve been in fandom and fan-spaces for a long time. I’d consider myself relatively fandom-old, and this is something I’ve seen time and time again when people blur that line between being a fan, and entirely taking things too far. In The Consumption of Magic, Lady Tina DeSilva’s PERCEPTION of Ryan (and Justin) lead to her turning on Sam and causing real people real harm, and… this happens in fan spaces. Like, the number of times that I’ve seen the spouses and significant others of famous men (and women) get harassed all over social media is bonkers to me, and I think Klune makes an excellent comparison between that toxic fannish culture and Lady Tina DeSilva.

Alright, enough of that.

I obviously can’t talk about this book without talking about the UTTER HEARTBREAK THAT I FELT over the way that it ends. I love books that make me cry; I love, love, love to feel, and books that hit me emotionally are some of my favourite ever. So even though The Consumption of Magic broke my heart in a billion pieces that I did not expect, I still loved it wholly.

Klune spends two books setting up one of the most shocking reveals I’ve read in a long time, and I think he did a fantastic job with it because there is NO way I would have EVER assumed that Ruv would be working with Myrin. Like, not for a single second. In fact, I still remember just how much I liked Ruv in the last book, so when he popped up at the end of this one I was FLABBERGASTED.

And then I was broken into tiny, billion pieces of grief. I’m not kidding — I cried during the last four chapters without stopping. It was terrible.

I had a deep love for Morgan and the way that he loves Sam. Of course, Sam is a character who has no shortage of loving paternal figures, but there was something special about the bond that he shared with Morgan and how much Morgan cared for him. When Morgan sacrificed himself to save Sam and Ryan? Holy fucking fuck fuck, I lost my goddamn mind.

Klune is a FANTASTIC author. This is certainly not his first book that made me cry and I know it won’t be the last.

While I may not have remembered an abundance of specifics about this book, I can remember the way it made me feel. The joy and humour and, later on, the absolute heartbreak that it made me feel. This book filled me with emotion in typical Klune fashion, and it was such a wonderful experience.

Beyond a five-star read, this is going to be a favourite that sticks with me for a long time to come. I can’t wait to reread it one day, and I think that’s nothing but a testament to how amazing a book this is.

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