A false king has seized Camelot’s throne, sentencing Tedros, the true king, to death. While Agatha, narrowly escapes the same fate, Sophie is caught in King Rhian’s trap. With her wedding to Rhian approaching, she’s forced to play a dangerous game as her friends’ lives hang in the balance.

All the while, King Rhian’s dark plans for Camelot are taking shape. Now the students of the School for Good and Evil must find a way to restore Tedros to the throne before their stories—and the future of the Endless Woods—are rewritten . . . forever.

I really need to learn that when I’m reading a series, it’s best to just binge it if all the books are out and I have them all available to me. Even a month break between had me a little discombobulated with who some of the newest characters were and what exactly happened in the previous book. Anyway, that’s my pre-ramble. Onto my thoughts about the book!

More is at stake now that there’s a false king on the throne of Camelot, and with all her friends being held captive, Agatha is on her own to figure out how to save them. Not to mention she’s being hunted by Rhian’s army and the kingdoms around Camelot. And she needs to do it before Rhian takes Sophie as his wife and destroys the Storian for good.

This is probably the first book where I’ve liked Sophie. She’s come a long way since the first book and is finally starting to show selflessness and wanting to do the Good thing. I feel for her because she’s stuck in Camelot’s castle as Rhian’s wife-to-be, but she knows what a monster he is. So she needs to outwit him and his Snake counterpart in order to escape and help her friends. Then she eventually has a choice to make, and she knows it will affect how everyone sees her, but she knows it’s the right thing to do.

“Some bonds are too deep for others to ever understand.”

A main theme of this book, and series really, is the friendship between Agatha and Sophie. Good and Evil… can they really remain best friends? These girls believe so. And even when it seems like Sophie is choosing Evil over Good (which, she has a few times, let’s be real) Agatha is there to pull her back because she knows her best friend. Agatha trusts her completely even when Sophie makes a few questionable choices in this book.

Tedros on the other hand, keeps on believing the worst in Sophie. I mean, he’s valid in this thinking considering his past with her, but at the same time if he really loves Agatha, he’ll believe that she trusts Sophie for a reason. Then again, no one but Sophie and Agatha seem to really understand each other the way that they do. I do like his banter with Sophie, though, when the three of them are together. He also grows a little in learning that this is his fight and he needs to go the right thing to claim his throne back from Rhian.

There’s really just a lot that goes on in this book and it’s hard to give it a review it deserves without too many spoilers. So, I’ll leave it at this… A Crystal of Time is a great lead into what I believe will be a great conclusion to this series. I’m a little worried about the end of One True King, but that’s why I picked it right up after finishing this one.

After all, it does end on a cliffhanger.

Rating: 4.75/5 stars