Bright Blaze of Magic

By: Jennifer Estep

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bad Things Always Come in Threes....

As a thief, I'm good at three things: hiding in the shadows, getting in and out unseen, and uncovering secrets. I put these skills to work for the Sinclair Family, one of the magical mobs that run the tourist town of Cloudburst Falls. Everyone knows Victor Draconi wants to take over all the other Families - and kill every last Sinclair. What they don't know is that I'm on to him, and no way will I let the man who murdered my mom get away with hurting all the other people I care about. Especially when I've got places to break into, stuff to steal, and Devon Sinclair fighting right by my side....

©2016 Jennifer Estep (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"The characters are as fantastic as Estep fans have come to expect." (RT Book Reviews)

a whining whining story

again I was hoping this book would be a lot better than it was whole time she whined and complained about how everybody died and how she was going to die and then the author just made her stupid over and over again I got so frustrated with this book

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Too whiny

It would've been a good story if the author didn't continually harp about the dead mother and the pains of the past. Luckily the app lets me fast forward through much of the whiny drivel.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Glad it ended!

It would have been a lot better if Lila did not keep repeating that this was the worst time of her life except when her mother was killed. If you followed the series that is a well established point. Every other sentence is about her mother teaching her to respect the monsters, her vengeance on Victory for the death or her mother, or how did Victor get the drop on her mother. It is not something that has to be repeated countless times. Those things were mentioned in books 1 - 2.

That countless repetition is something that Jennifer Esetp does in her Elemental Assassin series. Gin says countless times that she is the spider. I really think that Estep is limited in writing dialogue.

Lila is suppose to be an intelligent woman. Every leader knows how to read circumstances. Yet, she bemoan that it was her fault that she did not see fight coming. When the fight commences she tries to be bad ass in dire circumstances and always falls short. At what point will she learn to follow her instances!

Now knowing that Victor is a dick, why did all the families even go to a dinner without being armed? In each book, for the family dinner, guards are unarmed, Yet no one trust the other. Victor has been involved in countless dubious circumstances that someone should have made preparations. The head of the Sinclair family was killed at such a dinner.

The best part is the relationship with monsters, magic and Lila's relationship with them. With so many monsters how is it that no one else is aware of the old customs. How many men have to be killed for them to learn how to cross the bridge. It is a good read when the loch ness monster takes his revenge on those who do not pay the toll.

Can anyone tell me why with the technology of cars and cell phones they do not have guns? I wanted to give this a higher rating but ... I am glad it ended. I had invested to much to not finish the series.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not the best in the series!

Take forever to kill Victor. Irritating, predictable. Struggle to finish listening.
1st book the best.
in the series
Love the narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fabulous Series

This third book was just as exciting as the first and second books. When I finished the first book, I immediately turned around and bought the second and third. The first two books were so good and so was the continuation of Lilah's story. The Magic that each one possesses was very interesting. The tournament was exciting. I love a strong woman and Lilah is one very strong woman. The dynamics of the families kept me on the edge of my seat as I listened. Lilah's childhood with her mother, and now with other parts of her family play a big part in where she finds herself in this story. The narrator did an excellent job with the characters and their personalities. Love this Series.

Predictable

Narrator used whiney voice too often.
Characters lost their charm.
Just wanted to get it over with

Great ending to the trilogy

It is very rare that I think that the last book in a series/trilogy is the best book in the series. I think that the last books must be the hardest for authors to write (or at least that is how it seems to me). I’ve read so many great series that I love only to be disappointed by the last book in the series. It is hard to go out on a high note. That is something that Jennifer Estep pulled off with the Black Blade Trilogy. I thought this was a great ending to Layla’s story.

We’ve known since book one that Victor Draconi has had aspirations to rule all of Cloudburst Falls with all the families swear allegiance to him alone. Well, with only one story left, we also knew he was finally going to make his move in this book. Well, Victor didn’t disappoint. I will admit that this was a far more deadly (but not that gory) of a takeover that I would’ve expected for a YA series (but hey, I was reading Stephen King at twelve, so what am I to say about what should go in a YA novel. I also don’t read a large number of YA, so I’m really not a good judge).

As we’ve watched Layla grow from the independent thief to the leader of the group to help come up with the plan that involves many people to win the day, though she takes most of the danger and responsibility onto her own shoulders. I also love that she spent plenty of time learning more about her mother from Seleste and Claudia. She also learned more about her mother’s relationship with the monsters of Cloudburst Falls.

There is a ton of action in this book as Layla and the gang go from one thing to another to try to save their friends, family and everyone in Cloudburst Falls. I think Layla deserves quite a vacation after this all over. One of my favorite parts is we got a lot of time with Oscar, Layla’s pixie, who has been a favorite character of mine since book one. He reminds me of a redneck version of Jenks from The Hollows series. Oscar’s pet tortoise, Tiny, is adorable, too. I was glad that he had a larger part in this book, since he didn’t have a large roll in book two.

I was very happy with how this all wrapped up. We got time with all the major and even some time with some of the minor players in this series. I think it wrapped up well. If you read other series by Jennifer Estep, you will see some Easter eggs for Karma Girl and Elemental Assassin series. I also can’t talk about an Estep book without mentioning food. She does several great callouts to bacon in this book. Mmmm… Bacon. Never listen to an Estep book if you’re hungry, it will only make it worse. LOL Great series, I recommend you try it, after you’ve eaten something.

Narration
Brittany Pressley has narrated this entire trilogy and has done a wonderful job. She nails all the different voices of all the characters very well. She has to handle both male and female of adults and teenagers and she does it with ease. She does a great job with Oscar and his redneck pixie voice. I know that me and several of my friends prefered to get the audios over the ebooks because of the great narration.

Fantastic Third Book in the Series!

This third book in the series will not let you down. It starts a couple of weeks after book two ends and takes off from there. Loved seeing how Lila has evolved throughout the series and we get to see her more grown up in this book and accepting her role in the Sinclair family. Also loved seeing how her relationship with Devon has progressed but also how her friendship with Dia and Felix progressed in this book. This story moves quickly from beginning to end and has plenty of action throughout. An all around fantastic read. Brittany Pressley did a great job with the narration of this book.

Wonderful End to the Trilogy

If you ask Lila Merriweather how she spent her summer break, she would tell you that she became a team player, made some friends, has a new boyfriend, and helped take down some bad guys. You know the typical teenager's summer.

Bright Blaze of Magic was a nice wrap up of the Black Blade trilogy by Jennifer Estep. Lila gets her closer from the past and a has bright looking future with the Sinclair family.

Well done Estep! I like that Lila's story was told in a trilogy, there was no unnecessary over-drawn drama that you get with some long running series. Estep gives you some fun characters, action, mystery and a little violence (I would have liked to see more blood and death but I'm a little dark that way LOL). Seriously I kept thinking "oh, this character is going to die", "this character should die" and then "finally that character died". Estep did a good job of balancing the dark with the light in Bright Blaze of Magic.

The Black Blade trilogy is a series that both young and "old" adults can enjoy. I highly recommend it on audio. Brittany Pressley has become a favorite narrator of mine and I waited for the audio this time around. She delivers a great performance for the whole trilogy. Her voice is youthful enough for the "kid" characters and still mature enough for the adults and she adds just enough of a Southern twang to Lila's voice. I've listened to other audiobooks narrated by Pressley, she truly performances the stories in lieu of just reading them.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Overwrought

I never realized how overwrought this book was until I started listening to the audio version of the book. I just finished chapter 20 and I could not quite stop myself from rolling my eyes! I mean, how can the main character even spare a single second gazing at a boy when she's in the middle of an effing fight for her life??!! No wonder she got knocked out!

I normally love Estep's books, especially the Elemental Assasin series. This one is just a major disappointment.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Loved it. Always pay the tolls!

Always love Jennifer Estep's writing, her stories are fantastic. Even if this one is written towards young adults the slightly older ones can enjoy this one too. Brittany Pressley does a wonderful job at bringing the characters to life. For those who have listened or read the spider assassin series there is a little mention of a place to visit if you are ever in need of some good food. 😉

1 of 1 people found this review helpful