I had slightly mixed feelings about going into this read. While I enjoyed the first novel, I didn't fully connect with the characters like I wanted. But, I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to give the sequel a chance. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as the first novel. I wanted so much more world building and finally getting some answers to the way the magic system operated. The main focus was on the character dynamics, which normally would make up for the lack of world building, but in this case, I felt like an observer. It was too much surface level to truly feel like I was immersed in this universe. Some readers may enjoy this sequel, but it didn't end up being for me.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Shadows of Perl picks up after the end of House of Marionne. This is a YA fantasy world where magic is hidden from the normal world and magic users are divided into houses that train them in a debutante style, One type of magic, toushana, is considered forbidden and dark magic, Users of toushana are hunted down by Draguns, Quell, our FMC, has bonded with her toushana and is now considered enemy number one by Jordan, her trainer/love interest/#2 Dragun. Both swear that they hate each other and both are completely oblivious to the fact that they still love each other.
Quell is on the hunt to find her mother and develop control over her magic. Jordan is determined to find Quell but to also save The Sphere, an object that houses the magic in the world which has started to crack, If The Sphere breaks open or magic gets out then all magic in the world will be lost. Will these two be able save magic, will Quell find her mother, will they realize where their emotions truly lie?

Thank you to Penguin/Razorbill and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book which I am giving 3.5 stars. While I did enjoy this book I feel that it suffered some pacing issues and was a bit too long. I enjoyed the multiple POV chapters and I enjoy the main characters in this series I felt the addition of Nore as a POV chapter was too much, her story could have just been shortened. Generally this book is too long. I will continue this series with the third book and did already preorder a copy of this book for my home library since I already have book 1.

I will post video reviews of this book on my social medial (TikTok and YouTube) closer to the release date in September,