Review: Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic

Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jade, Jade, Jade – you are both enjoyable and infuriating! After Rochelle’s story, I wanted to see who all those visions played out and was on the edge of my seat all the way through!

We join Jade, post-snap (ugh, sorry, I just couldn’t resist, I’m horrible and I hated her sister). She is still holding a super huge grudge against Desmond, but have no fear! Pretty early on in this book, we get a yummy replacement in the form of a dragon, previously stuck in time. That makes our gang of good guys for this book: Kandy, Jade, and Warner (the new guy). We only get a brief visit from Kett that left me missing him for most of this book. There is also, aside from the beginning, an extreme lack of baking throughout. While my waistline appreciates it, it was definitely missed. So, all of that aside, the overall story is one of treasure hunting. We knew that Jade was practicing (although she probably wouldn’t call it that), so it makes sense that it would ramp up into a bigger quest-like situation.

The treasure they are hunting is something mysterious, assigned to Jade with very little detail, and puts everyone’s life in danger. Oh, and did I mention there are shadow demon leech things involved, too? Ugh. Kandy is determined to help Jade, even when Jade’s plans are pretty awful. I’m not sure if you would enjoy this book more or less if you read the Oracle book before this one. Knowing the scenes we will encounter without context made for a lot of nail-biting moments. That being said, going in blind is probably a different type of nerve inducing scene.

Each book gives us more insight into the dragons, their world, and their powers, but I admit to being somewhat baffled at the end of this book. The assignments they give Jade just seem… horrible and dangerous. I know that she is unique and talented but I wish she had a bigger support system she could lean on. Will we get Desmond back? I don’t like Warner as a replacement… Will we see Kett again? I miss him a lot, too. Thankfully, nothing happened in this book to make me quit future installments, but it was close!


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