Review: Amari and the Great Game by B.B. Alston

Title: Amari and the Great Game
Author: B.B. Alston
Series: Supernatural Investigations #2 
Genre: Middle Grade/Paranormal/Adventure
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
Edition: 400 pages, Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Powell's | Thriftbooks

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   After finding her brother and saving the entire supernatural world, Amari Peters is convinced her first full summer as a Junior Agent will be a breeze.
   But between the fearsome new Head Minister’s strict anti-magician agenda, fierce Junior Agent rivalries, and her brother Quinton’s curse steadily worsening, Amari’s plate is full. So when the secretive League of Magicians offers her a chance to stand up for magiciankind as its new leader, she declines. She’s got enough to worry about!
   But her refusal allows someone else to step forward, a magician with dangerous plans for the League. This challenge sparks the start of the Great Game, a competition to decide who will become the Night Brothers’ successor and determine the future of magiciankind.
   The Great Game is both mysterious and deadly, but among the winner’s magical rewards is Quinton’s last hope—so how can Amari refuse?

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I absolutely loved the first book in this series, regrettably, I didn't love this one was much. It was like half a step down for me from the first book. But that's something that happens a lot with second books in series for me. 

 

Amari is a fantastic protagonist, and steadily becoming a favorite character. I love the character development she has in this book. I like that she had more than one conflict to deal with in this book, and that one of them was low stakes and more of a personal conflict with being her best friend leaving for Oxford. Her conflicted feelings with wanting to be happy for Elsie, but also being sad that she might never see her again. She can be petty at times when it comes to people who bullied her in the past, but in the end she cares deeply for others, and I really love that about her character.

 

There are two main conflicts in this book that are intertwined. An attack on the Bureau, and The Great Game itself. While the stakes were definitely higher in this books, at times the pacing made it difficult to feel the weight of both conflicts. Everything happened so fast that when the end came, a huge cliffhanger I might add, I didn't expect that to be the end of the book.

 

I am looking forward to the next book because of the cliffhanger. I need to know how things get resolved for Amari and her friends.