My Experience with The Firemage's Vengeance by Garrett Robinson

At long last! The epic conclusion to The Academy Journals trilogy by Garrett Robinson: The Firemage’s Vengeance. 

A murderer lurks the halls of the Academy. After Dean Forredar’s son goes missing, he is determined to find who is responsible for his child’s disappearance. And Ebon, son of Drayden, is at the very top of the Dean’s List (heh). Together, Ebon and his friends must not only prove their innocence and unveil the true criminal but must also do so without revealing the very real crimes they’ve been forced to commit to stay alive.

Robinson has done a great job continuously complicating the lives of our young heroes. The consequences of every action they take in this novel is loaded with the tensions of morality. Torn between loyalties and toiling with the weighing of greater goods, Ebon is forced to make some of most gray choices thus far. 

Like the finale of the first volume of the Nightblade saga, my favorite parts of this story are in the climax, and I hesitate to discuss that here because I don’t want to ruin that for you. But I will say that it gave me the triumphant feeling that I love when I get to the end of stories that lean heroic. And that’s the feeling I’m signing up for when I read stories like this.

I recommend this story to anyone who loves the magic school setup in high fantasy stories. If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you’d love to try a story with a similar vibe to the second half of the series, I’d grab it!

*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher, but I wasn't paid to review this book. While this is an honest review, I was involved in the production of the audiobook, and I receive a small royalty for purchases of the audiobook version*