Romantasy

A Conjuring of Light

Name: A Conjuring of Light
Rating: 4.15 (710 reviews)

V.E. Schwab · Shades of Magic #3 · 2017

As a malevolent magic consumes the city, an unlikely band must pay any price to save every London at once.

Score: 81.6
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Mild
POV: multi
Ending: HEA / HFN

Is A Conjuring of Light spicy? See the full heat guide →

Tropes

Enemies to Allies Dark Magic Morally Grey Gods & Immortals Quest

Content warnings

ViolenceDeathWarGraphic violenceGoreBloodTortureMajor character deathSlaverySelf-harmSuicidal ideationAbuseKidnappingGrief & lossPTSD

Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.

If you liked this, read

Hell BentLeigh Bardugo79.3 GodkillerHannah Kaner78.2 A Darker Shade of MagicV.E. Schwab79.0 Muse of NightmaresLaini Taylor82.3 A Torch Against the NightSabaa Tahir80.5

What readers think

Readers broadly praise A Conjuring of Light as a deeply satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, with the ensemble character work — particularly Holland's redemption arc and the Rhy/Alucard romance — drawing consistent acclaim. The prose is called lyrical and emotionally resonant, and the book is frequently described as hitting harder than its predecessors. The main criticism is structural: the first half is uneven and the central villain Osaron is considered conceptually strong but dimensionally thin compared to the human antagonists. Some readers feel Kell's internal arc remains frustratingly unresolved, and Lila is occasionally sidelined despite being the most popular character. The Goodreads rating sits at approximately 4.29 across nearly 200,000 ratings, reflecting wide popular satisfaction even among readers who note the pacing and villain weaknesses.

Read it if

· Readers who finished the first two books and want an emotionally charged, high-stakes payoff with genuine consequences
· Fans of ensemble casts where platonic bonds and found-family loyalty carry as much weight as the romance
· Anyone who loves villain-to-tragic-hero redemption arcs — Holland's storyline alone is cited by many as the best in the series

Skip it if

· You haven't read the first two books — this opens mid-cliffhanger with no on-ramp for new readers
· Graphic torture, blood, slavery, and major character death are hard limits for you
· You want the villain to be a complex, character-driven antagonist rather than a force-of-nature threat

If you liked this

· For fans of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — ensemble heist-adjacent fantasy, morally grey characters, and ensemble bonds that hit harder than any romance subplot
· For fans of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir — ruthless empire, slow-burn romance with real stakes, and characters forced into impossible choices
· For fans of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas — fierce heroine, world-ending battles, and a series that escalates its emotional weight with each installment
· For fans of The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon — parallel or hidden worlds, magic with genuine cost, and a protagonist who keeps surviving against impossible odds

How we read the room

In this series

Part of Shades of Magic — read in order:

Full series profile & spice/trope breakdown →

Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.

Take the quiz →