One of the stregths of this series is that each new peril forming the core of a book seems to flow naturally from events in the previous books. There’s no neat tying up of all ends in book 4, only for something new and worse to appear from nowhere in an attempt to up the tension. Instead, while the bulk of the problems of Elfsorrow may have been dealt with in that book, there were also consequences – which we face here.

That said, Shadowheart didn’t dazzle me. It was a good book from a very enjoyable series, but a few days after finishing it, I have to consciously stop and think what it was actually about! Nevertheless, I did enjoy the read, the escapism, and revisiting the Raven.

Looking forward to a conclusion in book 6, Demonstorm, as that is the one thing missing from this series. I’m not entirely convinced I’ll get one, though!