I loved Threadneedle and I didn’t think I could love Shadowstitch more than the first, but I did, I couldn’t believe how much more I was addicted, maybe I didn’t appreciate Threadneedle as much as I should have when I first read it, I don’t know all I can say is this needs all the stars, 6 , 7 , 8 stars there aren’t enough for me to say how much I loved this, if you loved Threadneedle you will adore this, if you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for ?

Shadowstitch continues on from events of Threadneedle. Anna and Effie are looking into how to break their curse and the origins of how it came about for clues. Meanwhile, someone has released a spell on London and the gang have to figure out who and how before they get the blame and people get hurt. I absolutely loved the characters development in this book, the complexities of Anna’s and Effie’s relationship throughout the story was gripping.. This book is intriguing, gritty and magical.

loved reading Threadneedle and Shadowstitch had me even more gripped. The characters are complex and feel very real. I want to be part of Rowan’s family. The herd mentality of the school children was particularly well captured. The pacing is excellent and I struggled to put it down. Particularly in the middle of the book the tension felt almost unbearable.

**Requested this not realising it was a sequel, that'll teach me to be more careful!!- I do own a copy of book 1 but haven't had a chance to get to it yet, will come back to review once I've gotten through them both!**

"Shadowstitch" by Cari Thomas is a mesmerizing fantasy novel that stands out as one of my favourite reads of 2024! Thomas's enchanting world-building and compelling characters create an immersive experience that captivates from the first page. The plot is intricately woven with magic and intrigue. Thomas's character demonstrate a wonderfully nuanced emotional depth as she explores the subjects of grief and trauma, sisterhood and friendship, attraction and envy. This book is a must-read for fantasy enthusiasts seeking a truly enchanting story.

I really enjoyed Threadneedle and had been looking forward to continuing this series. Over the past three years, though, my reading tastes have changed and this impacted on my enjoyment of this book.

I’ve never been a fan of love triangles but always enjoyed magic and witchcraft so hoped that would balance things out for me. I really struggled with the drama between Anna and Effie, something I used to relish. I still very much enjoyed the world building.

Overall, though, this wasn’t the book for me. I’m almost certain it would have been had I read it straight after Threadneedle three years ago.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Voyager, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, for the opportunity to read this book.

📖 Book Review 📖

Shadowstitch (Threadneedle 2) by Cari Thomas
HarperVoyager, 6th June 2024

The bestselling series continues, and although you will be at an advantage if you've read Threadneedle, Shadowstitch works as a standalone, too.

Anna is a cursed witch, haunted by her dead aunt. She's a character you can't help but root for from the outset as her coven faces exposure from a hysteria outbreak. Striving to break her curse, Anna is strong as she explores the magical underworld with her equally-cursed sister Effie, unsure she can trust her fully.

Magic and mayhem abound at St. Olave's School, striking terror into the hearts of pupils and teachers alike. It truly felt like I was a part of the coven as Anna, Effie, Rowan, Manda and Attis practised their magic, desperately seeking to uncover the dark forces at work whilst remaining undetected themselves.

Full of wonderful, complex characters and high jinx, Shadowstitch transports you to magical places while bringing every emotion to the fore. It's imagical 😉

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to HarperVoyager and Cari Thomas for providing an eARC via NetGalley; this is my honest review.

#Shadowstitch #CariThomas #HarperVoyager #BookReview #Threadneedle #Witchy #FiveStars

What an epic read with darkness, imagination and tension throughout. I felt my heart race, then drop with heaviness as the story followed Anna, Effie and the rest of the Coven. It's darker than Threadneedle as the threat from the Hunters immerge in ways too close to the witches, and Anna and Effie have to deal with the consequences of Threadneedle's ending.
It is a great sequel and can't wait to read the next. Cari Thomas is a wonderful storyteller

Having been completely *obsessed* with Threadneedle, I was eager to devour Shadowstitch. Adored the brilliantly observed world her cast inhabit, with a magical world existing alongside just out of sight of our own -- underground and around hidden corners of London. As others have mentioned, Thomas evokes the most enchanting Christmas, and I loved the dinner party scene. Another astonishing feat, brava Cari!

I will give Cari Thomas credit for two things; she has created an intriguing world, and she knows how to write a cliffhanger intended to make you pick up the next book. That is how I've just slogged through 400 pages of a book that I for the most part did not enjoy. Despite my reservations with the first book, Threadneedle, I was sucked into picking up Shadowstitch by Cari Thomas after the dramatic cliffhanger ending. It did not surprise me to find that this book followed the exact same principle, which isn't unusual for literature at all; but when I've not enjoyed the book, it's time for me to say goodbye.

The strength of the book was once again the world-building, however, it felt like a lot less time was spent doing magic and more time focused on drama and the sub-plot of the growing threat of the Witchcraft Inquisitorial and Prevention Services (WIPS). The anecdotes at the start of each chapter provided the most information, and these seemed to be trying to guide the reader's thoughts in a very distinct direction. While interesting, after a while, they began to feel like Thomas was trying to spoon-feed the reader hints instead of letting them work out the clues she had already littered throughout the story.

The characterisation was better in this book, especially for Rowan. One of the highlights of the book is Christmas with her family. Yet I couldn't help but notice the lack of representation again. St Olave's is a school in a part of London that has a very diverse population, not just rich white kids. I don't understand why authors feel the need to write about real places and then remake them in their fictional imagery. Why not just create a fictional school?! Although in the books it's situated in Southwark, whereas in real life the premises moved to Bromley in the 60s.

The only clear LGBTQIA+ representation appears to be Poppins, a secondary character. Effie flirts with another female member of the Wild Hunt, and there is a very vague mention of sexuality briefly by a main character. As for disability representation, how Thomas dances around Poppins' disability is awful. Either you've written a character that is disabled and uses his umbrella as a mobility device, or he's not. Hiding behind your narrator's uncertainty is not an excuse, that is just ableism.

This leads me to my issue with the entire Witchcraft Inquisitorial and Prevention Services (WIPS) subplot. As a queer disabled person and a pagan, reading the persecution of teenage witch characters at a secondary/high school felt ludicrously unbelievable and also disrespectful. There are real people, real teenagers, who are being persecuted, who are dealing with mobs at their school gates and I don't know if Thomas was trying to make this into an allegory, but it fell very flat for me.

I also found it difficult to believe that there would be no blowback from anyone, especially the pagan and Wiccan communities if something like this happened. I remember hearing Thomas talking about the topics she researched for this series, and that included a lot of pagan/Wiccan subjects. It feels quite rude to have her use our beliefs when it suits her, and then ignore that those communities exist when it doesn't.

Despite some of the things that captured my attention from the start, there was not enough in Shadowstitch to keep me reading this series. I felt like this was just a re-run of the first book with a few parts changed. There was hardly any character development, especially in regard to Anna and Effie's relationship, and it felt like they ended up at exactly the same place they started at.

I especially hated the way that on the one hand, Thomas shows young readers that they should not allow themselves to be coerced into removing their clothes by teenage boys, but it's absolutely fine to let your sister coerce you into a relationship (with strong suggestions that it will involve sex) with your toxic ex-boyfriend who dumped you when you refused to sleep with him! Because of course, there is no other way to keep the Coven safe or keep Peter closer than for Anna to go against every instinct screaming at her to run far away from him. This is the type of scenario authors should be warning young readers against, not implying that it is fine under certain "conditions".

There's also only so many times you can rely on "but it's the curse" before it gets very tedious, and for a moment there it looked like some real progress had been made, but no, drama first, character development last. I get the feeling that is something that will be strung out over several more books. Despite the cliffhanger screaming at me that I need to know what happens next, I'm not going to let myself be suckered in.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to immerse myself into the story as the formatting once it went to kindle was absolutely awful. I can read on the NetGalley shelf but it’s just too much of a distraction on my phone. I’m so excited for this sequel so will definitely be purchasing the ebook soon but for now I had to DNF this arc due to the bad formatting. It made it so uncomfortable to read and extremely difficult to navigate

This book is the second in a series, and dives in where Threadneedle ends - Anna has survived an attempt to suppress her magic but is still haunted by her Aunt’s death and is living under the shadow of the curse that has followed their family for generations. As if that wasn’t enough to be dealing with, bouts of magical hysteria are ripping through London and even Anna’s school, and a shadowy organisation determined to uncover and stamp out witchcraft is gaining credibility and power.

Anna and her sister Effie’s exploration of the curse takes them back to the witch trials of the 17th Century which was interesting, and I really liked how those echoes ominously point to the current situation the girls and their coven are facing - their curse fates history to repeat for the sisters but it looks like a broader, more terrifying history is also set to repeat itself in the growing power of the Hunters.

I felt the world building was fantastic, as it was in the first book. There are strong fantasy elements set in current-day London, and I was easily swept along with descriptions of the different types of magic there were and how it all worked.

I also thought the characterisation was excellent. Effie, Anna’s sister is a particularly complex character. We delve into her motivations and her fears sat behind her bravado more in this book, but her manipulations, lies and tendency to smash into action despite the consequences are so frustrating! I’m really interested to see how the sibling relationship evolves in the last book as it’s still so fraught - which is part of their curse.

My only slight criticism is the pacing - I felt this story did linger for potentially too long while Anna and her coven worked out that the bouts of hysteria ripping through London were magic, were related and then what felt like a significant amount of time was spent deciding what they’d do about them. As soon as this decision was made, the pace ramped right back up to a huge cliffhanger ending!

Although not strictly that historical (which is my usual thing) this was a brilliant book that centres found families, forbidden love and dark witchcraft. If you haven’t checked out the series yet I’d heartily recommend it!

I've been looking forward to this book ever since I finished my arc of the first book in this series. I remember that book being released during the pandemic. I was working from home and the book actually made me late for work. I had to finish it first. My pre-order for this book has been placed ages ago already and when I saw the book on Netgalley I had to request a copy. Luckily Harper Voyager granted me a copy!

This book was everything I had hoped it would be and so so so much more. It's quite a big book. I'm really glad I started reading in time. But every chapter, every sentence, it was all worth it. Once more the author does an amazing job creating the atmosphere. And there's a lot going on in this book. Our witches are traveling places and they are dealing with people suspecting them of witchcraft and starting a witch hunt.

Anna is still the sole point of view character and within a few chapters my bond with her reawakened. Anna reminds me a lot of myself. She is searching for who she is. She is rather careful, opposed to Effie's brashness. She really wants to do good. She wants to save Attis. She wants a chance to build a normal and happy relationship with Effie. She wants humanity to be safe. She wants the world of witchcraft to be saved.

But this book is mostly about her discovering her own power. It's about her discovering that exactly her love for this world and all its people is her strength. And if she has to travel to hell and back to save her, she does so. I have to admit that I had not expected this book to end with such a cliffhanger though. The author should take all the time in the world to write the next book, hopefully making it as great as the first two, but I will be waiting very impatiently for its release!

Phew. What a wild ride. This book is the very definition of a rollercoaster, if the rollercoaster was underground, upside down, pitch black and ravens were attacking you at every turn.

This book is DARK. Like, it's pretty relentlessly depressing. Will Anna ever get a break? I have mixed feelings about this because I do think books should have light and shade, and this book was 90% shade. It was almost uncomfortable at times? Like, I didn't really want to keep reading. But I also did at the same time. Saying that, it is incredibly well written and the ending is so complex and brilliant. I am yet again annoyed that I have to wait for the next one!

I also think the book didn't really get going properly until about 30% in. Having reread Threadneedle before this one to remind myself, the first 30% of this one felt a bit flat. I know we were dealing with the fallout of the events at the end of book 1, but it just seemed slightly lacklustre. I struggled to want to pick it up during that first third.

Overall, 4 stars because I didn't enjoy it as much as book 1, but it was still so intricate and had many exciting twists and the ending was incredible.

if you love

YA fantasy
Love triangle
Urban setting
Witches v witch hunters
Multigenerational curse

This is your book.
It was such a great book and even if it was more in depth and had more words building i enjoyed it a lot with witch parties,curses, trying not to be caught. There is something for everyone

Anna, Effie and the Coven of the Dark Moon are back and i couldn't be happier

Anna, Effie and the Coven of the Dark Moon are back and this time there's a LOT of ravens. I found this book a little more unfocused than the first- there's a LOT going on, between the coven's own troubles, Anna and Effie's curse, the attendant love triangles, grief, magic languages, mass hysteria, etc, etc. Honestly, keeping all these plates in the air is impressive and Thomas' hand only slips occasionally. I really like Anna as a protagonist, and I'm glad we're starting to see a bit more of Effie's vulnerability. Next book, please for the love of the Goddess give Rowan more to do.

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 | 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐬
★★★★.½

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟
⟡ YA fantasy
⟡ Love triangle
⟡ Urban setting
⟡ Witches v witch hunters
⟡ Multigenerational curse

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
This series has me in a literal chokehold. I can’t breathe through the sheer tension of it all. If the characters weren’t squabbling they were attending wild witch parties, and if they weren’t doing that they were trying to break a multigenerational curse, and if they weren’t doing that they were trying to avoid being caught by the witch hunters, and if they weren’t doing that they were trying to solve the mystery of the magical mass hysteria outbreaks.

It sounds like a lot, and it is, but it’s written in such a way that it doesn’t feel convoluted, it fits together perfectly. I’m in awe of this series to be honest and I can’t wait to see how it continues. It has some of the best world building and the best magic system I have ever read. The writing is glorious and the stakes are high, my favourite kind of book.

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬:
‘𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵, 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥–𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵.’

‘𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭,’ 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥. ‘𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨?’

‘𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘤𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘥’𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺?’

‘𝘔𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘥 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.’

‘𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦! 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺. 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵. 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘹𝘦.’ 𝘌𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘦’𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴. ‘𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘺–𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘭! 𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬–𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵! 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘴–𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘴!’

Just not for me. I loved Threadneedle when I read it but in the short time since my reading habits have changed and I just have no patience for Effie and Anna's drama.

This is the second book in the language of magic series by Cari Thomas. In this book we are following Anna, Effie, Attis and friends in the aftermath of book one.
The overall storing is a coming of age, high school story dealing with the persecution of witches, both past and present. I definitely would have loved this series as a teen/young adult, but as a 30 something year old I'm not sure the school setting is for me anymore. However that doesn't mean that there weren't aspects of this book that I did enjoy. The scenes outside of the school environment, particularly with the wild hunt and the other coves were enjoyable and helped to build on the magic world that Cari has created. This also helped in the development of the characters, in particular Anna. I find myself disliking Effie more often than not, but I wonder if this is due to the fact that we are reading from Anna's perspective so it could be the curse overshadowing the view of her.
The overall story of Anna and friends figuring out what was happening in London is enjoyable and compelling, although for me this book was a little slow for the first half or so and then the pace picked up and I found it more exciting. In the second half of the book there was a greater sense of urgency that they needed to figure out what was happening and try to stop it which I enjoyed.
Slightly annoyingly (in a good way) the book ends on a cliffhanger which definitely leaves you wanting more.

Thank you to Harper Collins & #NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I never read the first book ( I started this not realising it had a book previous to it)
I very much loved Anna’s character! She never trusted herself but she always trusted others,
I feel like there were little bits in this I would have understood a lot more if I had read the first book, I definitely missed out on the character building as I assume this book jumped straight from the last point of the first book?

I’ll have to give the first one a read because I quite enjoyed this one I just think I would have a better understanding of some things if I read the first one first.