Morning Mortals! Tis I, back with another book review! I have to dedicate this one to my awesome husband who bought me a lovely sprayed edges copy of The Song Rising to add to my shelf when I wanted to make sure I read it before he did. Awesome human.

Goodreads Summary: 

Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London’s criminal population.

But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.

Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it…

So book one we were in Oxford, book two we headed to London, book three extends even further out taking us to other places in this alternative UK (I believe I can guess where book four will go?).

I love it when Tom gets involved in reading the books I like (or in this case listening) but he does have a habit of pointing out things that I had yet to notice. I think audiobooks can do that, highlight elements that, when you’re reading, you ignore. What Tom pointed out to me is that often Paige makes the stupidest decisions. For instance, it will say on one page ‘I had better not upset these people or terrible things will happen’ and then one page on Paige upsets those people and (shock horror) bad things happen. Sometimes you can understand why Paige does these things and on occasion she has no choice but quite often she just doesn’t take her own advice. It’s a small thing but as soon as you notice it it’s hard to make it go away. We’ve started calling it ‘Reasons why Paige is not in Ravenclaw.’

That being said, it is nice to read Paige in a proper position of leadership, and you can’t deny she is getting some things done in spite of the circumstances. The plot seemed to be revving up in this book which was what I really needed. Samantha Shannon is great at world building but I was definitely at the point where I needed a little bit more action!

I have to say, despite some elements, I did enjoy this. The third book (in a non-trilogy) can be a tricky one (although Prisoner of Askaban is awesome) and Shannon manages to continue fleshing out both the world and the characters with whom we fell in love in books one and two.

Put simply, this was the make it or break it moment for me as to whether this series would in fact work for seven books as planned and I do think it will. I look forward to book #4!

My rating: 4/5 stars

All opinions are my own (except the ones that are Tom’s)

What say you? Did you enjoy book three? Let me know in the comments below!

J