The Golden Enclaves, the 3rd book in the scholomance series by Naomi Novak, was my 53rd read the year! This book was the final one in this trilogy (duh, as it’s the 3rd).
You can read the review of book one here.
And book two here.
As this is the 3rd in the series, it’s nearly impossible to do a spoiler free review, I’ll try to be vague but if you have’t read 1 and 2 yet, look away.
Summary attempt:
El has done it, she escaped the Graduation Hall, saved all the students and kicked the school full of Mals into the void. (Mals are monsters that consume magic and their food of choice is wizard children, hence why their parents take the risk of sending their kids to a wizard school where their chances of survival are 60%… but on the outside it’s more like 20%). Only problem is, Orion went with the school into the void, probably inside of Patience, the enormous, all consuming Maw mouth.
The world gives El no time to come to terms with what’s happened, she’s soon summoned to help The London Enclave. A malefecier (bad magic type wizard) has attacked them, leaving their wards broken and half the Enclave falling into the void. Armed with a book that teaches her to build enclaves without Malia (bad magic) and her ability to kill Maw mouth’s El chooses to save the day. The London Enclave are shocked when they discover the only thing she wants in return is for them to share some of their wealth and knowledge with wizards who do not live in the Enclave. This pisses some pretty important people off, so El escapes, alongside her reluctant allies and it’s not long before she called to save the next enclave. The more El learns about how these elite Enclaves are built the more disgusted she becomes, she begins to discover a link between the Maw mouths and the Enclaves. Slowly El begins to realise how her grandmother’s prophecy might come true… just not in the way anyone thought.
What did I think?
I’ve read very few series’s that wrap up this well! The whole way through the book I could not figure out how this was going to end, but not in a poor writing kind of way. The ending is so clever, pulling in elements that have been seeded way back from book one. I love the world building, the magic system is so different from anything I’ve read lately and I love the depth of the characters. This is one of those rare books where you aren’t necessarily supposed to like the MC. El is constantly fighting her natural inclination towards dark magic, so she is incredibly morally grey as someone who is the heroine of the story. With the direction she is pulled in at the end, you get that very real sense of being pulled with her, that there really is no other way.
100% recommend this series, if you’re a fantasy lover, definitely give The Scholomance Series a go!
Oh, hey! More stuff
- Scared Sexy Novella series
- November reading wrap up
- House of Scarabs – Hazel Longuet
- The Rose trilogy – Jodie Louise Vail
- The Fallen and the kiss of dusk
- Love on the notes of destiny – Anna Penteras
- The Christmas Tree farm – Laurie Gilmore
- Built on Ruins – Kate S Toll
- The Strawberry Patch Pancake House – Laurie Gilmore
Antonia Bernardin 
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