A review by felinity
The Conquering Dark: Crown & Key by Susan Griffith, Clay Griffith

3.0

The opening scene firmly sets the story in its timeline, and shows the fusion of those with assorted magical, engineering or other talents into a cohesive team. Unified in their purpose, and supporting Simon, the heart of the team

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whose magic was previously ripped away

, they now have a new mission: to protect the Stone of Scone, whatever the cost. It's a good thing they have Penny to create new weapons for them and Kate's vials, because between them they can be a match for almost anyone. There are touches of Indiana Jones, including the two-dimensional bad guys, and a very real moral question revisited from the previous books: can you sacrifice a few for the good of many?

Although a fun read, it didn't match the thrill and engagement of the first. It was never entirely clear why the Stone was targeted, and there were too many small niggles for me to fully enjoy it.

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There were too many coincidences, the most obvious of which were the ease of finding the hidden entrance, Penny's ACME bag of many things paired with Kate's many vials really stretched my credulity, and the fact that all the players were known to them.

Some of them can be ascribed to "moving the plot along" but after making the same allowances in the previous book I'd run out of this sort of patience and found myself muttering, "How convenient" all too often. (If you didn't read them back to back, it might not be so obvious.)

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And by the time they reached the climatic battle, I was just plain tired of the Baronness' multi-armed semi-invincible constructs. Each was almost a repeat of the previous, and I couldn't help noticing how wonderfully the good guys *always* made it through.

Simon has come a long way though, and it was good to see how he and Imogen have been transformed.

It was worth reading to close out the trilogy, but nowhere near as good as the first.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.