Review – Blue Magic (Astrid Lethewood, Book 2) by A.M. Dellamonica (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: April 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0765319487
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Astrid Lethewood series
Source: Copy from Publisher
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the sequel to Indigo Springs and I believe the final book in the Astrid Lethewood series. This was a much more linear and well-thought out book than Indigo Springs. I enjoyed the creative ideas in this book, even though at times the writing was still a bit ambiguous.

This book details the story of how Astrid is trying to control the release of magic from the well so that it doesn’t destroy the world. It also focuses on Sahara’s trial and her followers. In addition to that Will’s children have been stolen by their mother who is a follower of Sahara and Will is desperate to save them. The story is told from many different perspectives and it worked well for this book.

This is a much more linear story than in the previous book and not quite as hard to follow. It was also a very creative story; I love the idea of leaking magic creating an eco-disaster of epic proportions.

Astrid is struggling, she is the keeper of the well. She is trying to release magic slowly so that the world won’t be destroyed. The release of the magic is inevitable…but if it can be somewhat controlled the fall-out might not be quite as bad. She also needs an heir to pass the magic on to and she hopes it will be Will (the negotiator who worked with Astrid in the first book).

While Astrid struggles to try and heal the world Sahara is trying to rule it. Sahara is egotistical and pretty much insane. As time goes on the military is beginning to figure out that Sahara isn’t the one with power…Astrid is.

Adding to the chaos are the people trapped in the other place, the place where the blue magic flows from. They want to get out but if Astrid lets them all out at once the magic will explode into the world and destroy it.

In this book we get to know all of the characters much better than we did in the first book; they all become very real and very interesting.

The real strength of this story is the creative idea behind the world being irreversibly contaminated with a long contained magic. Also Astrid builds a community which is focused on letting people do what they want to do, it ends up being an interesting type of society.

There is a lot going on in the story and, as with the previous book, the story gets a bit ambiguous at points. Sometimes it’s a bit confusing to figure out what’s going on. Still I thought it was worth dealing with this confusion to read the outcome of this very creative and interesting premise to a story.

Overall this was an intriguing urban fantasy read. It won’t be for everyone because the story can still be a bit ambiguous and confusing at times. This book was much more well thought out and linear than the first book, Indigo Springs. We also get to learn a lot more about these characters and really get to engage with them. Recommended to those who want to read some urban fantasy that’s a bit different and has an eco-twist to it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge