Several times in the past few weeks, the same question has popped up in my feed on Threads: Do you prefer standalone reads or series? As someone who enjoys both, I would never discount reading something simply because it fell into either of those categories but I do know people who refuse to be drawn into a series of books for a whole variety of reasons such as they don’t want to wait for the next title or are worried that the first instalment was so good, any subsequent stories won’t live up to their expectations.

Having loved the opener for this brilliant middle grade series when I read it earlier this year, this is a title that I – like many others – have been waiting patiently for and one that most definitely delivered on all fronts. An exciting magical adventure that doesn’t hang about but dives straight into the action very soon after it opens, this is another wonderful story that I downloaded pretty much as soon as it appeared on NetGalley and one that had me enthralled as I rejoined protagonists Bitsy and Kosh as they find themselves accused of a crime they haven’t committed and hot on the trail of the real culprit.

After learning of the existence of magicores, fantastical creatures that are conjured through experiencing different emotions, and rescuing Bitsy’s father, Eric, from the evil Riddlejax in their first outing, when we reencounter her and best friend Kosh they are in the middle of a lesson at the European Conservatoire of Conjuring as part of their training to become conjurors – not masters of illusion but those who can wield magic by using a resource called farthingstone to create magicores. Following the lesson, Kosh’s timetable indicates he has Chrysalides next and after asking fellow pupil and friend Mateo for help, finds himself somewhere within the Conservatoire that he has never seen, together with an uninvited Bitsy who has decided to accompany him.

Met by three members of staff, the two of them soon learn of their reason for summoning Kosh but while they are there, the chrysalides come under attack from the Shadowsmith, an individual responsible for a series of thefts around the world. Realising that they are searching for something in particular, Bitsy and Kosh quickly work out what it is and make good their escape from the chrysalides, taking it with them, but when the Shadowsmith also disappears, the finger of suspicion for the attack is very quickly pointed at Kosh.

With the authorities convinced that Kosh and Bitsy are behind the Shadowsmith’s recent crimewave, the two of them are forced to go on the run and conclude that to clear their names they will have to identify the real identity of the mysterious villain and bring them to justice themselves. But with their new enemy wielding powerful, dark magic and the two of them still conjurers-in-training, can they not only track them down but work out what their intention is and prevent them carrying out a terrible crime that will have implications not just for the magical, cosmodynamic, community but also the wider cosmotypical world around them?

Having discovered the secret, hidden world to which they and Eric belong in Book 1, here Bitsy and Kosh are both totally onboard with getting the most they possibly can from their membership of this highly exclusive community and are determined to become the best conjurers they can be when everything suddenly threatens to collapse around them. From early on in the book it is clear that the two of them are becoming more adept at using their abilities and creating their own magicores, informed by the Magicalia book that belonged to Bitsy’s late mother, but, perhaps more importantly, together with Mateo they are also becoming more able to use what is going on around them to work out exactly what to do next when they face a whole range of obstacles in this adventure, rather than either panicking – like many of us would – acting impulsively or just plain giving up.

As the three friends collect and interpret the clues as to what is going on, their already close relationships enable them to work as one in their battle to uncover the identity of the Shadowsmith in order to try to defeat them. While the narrative twists and turns as it unfolds, and carries us along with it, we can only read on with bated breath as together with Bitsy, Kosh and Mateo, we attempt to work out what are the red herrings with which we are presented, and just who the culprit is.

For anyone who has read the first book, this is a real treat but it will work perfectly well as a standalone read if you are jumping in here. As before, cover illustrator David Wyatt’s stunning pictures of magicores introduce each chapter, making this a visually appealing read too. I very much enjoyed it and am now eagerly awaiting Book 3, for which I don’t as yet have a date.

My enormous thanks, of course, go to Walker Books and to NetGalley for my advance, virtual read of this title. Magicalia: Thief of Shadows publishes 6th February.