Reviewed by Lisa
TITLE: The Consumption of Magic 
SERIES: Tales from Verania #4
AUTHOR: TJ Klune
NARRATOR: Michael Lesley
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 18 hours, 18 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2018
BLURB:
Sam of Wilds faced the Dark wizard Myrin and lived to tell the tale. Granted, the battle left him scarred, but things could be a hell of a lot worse.
It’s not until he reunites with Morgan of Shadows and Randall that he realizes just how much worse things could be.
Because the scars have meaning and hint at Myrin’s true plans for Sam and the Kingdom of Verania.
With time running out, Sam and his band of merry misfits – the unicorn Gary, the half-giant Tiggy, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart, and the dragon known as Kevin – must travel to the snowy mountains in the North and the heart of the Dark Woods to convince the remaining dragons to stand against Myrin. Along the way, Sam learns secrets of the past that will forever change the course of the future.
A reckoning is coming for Sam of Wilds, and there is nothing he can do to stop it.
REVIEW:
TJ Klune has an unrivaled ability to make me both cry and laugh in the same paragraph and The Consumption of Magic is no different. Klune is a master at giving a reader the feels.
In the third installment of Tales of Verania, Sam and the gang are off again on more adventures. Nothing much as changed with the gang except the mission and this time Sam has had his world view changed by secrets of the past which were revealed. He has to work through his feelings of anger and betrayal if he’s to succeed in uniting the dragons of Verania to help his cause.
The characters remain much the same. Kevin is no less focused on sex with everything. Gary is OTT dramatic. Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart is still dashing and immaculate as well as at times a douchebag (Sam’s description). Morgan and Randall are the great wizards who do their best to teach Sam the ways of magic. Justin is haughty and derisive toward Sam. Sam is still the brash young wizard who acts without thinking. And Tiggy is everyone’s favorite. Or if he isn’t, he should be.
The story is full of OTT humor, tongue-in-cheek pop cultural references, with some dark thrown in for good measure. This installment also contains the longest sex scene (which just happens to be the only sex scene in the book) I’ve ever seen, taking an entire chapter to tell. I usually try not to fetishize sex scenes in LGBTQ+ books yet I’d be ridiculously cold if I didn’t think it was smoking hot.
I absolutely loved this book and recommend it to anyone who likes some humor mixed in with the angst. If you haven’t cared for any of the previous books in the series, I’d stay away because this follows the same pattern. I definitely would not try reading this before the previous books in the series and want to point out to those who don’t like cliffhangers to make sure they’ve picked up the next in the series because also like the previous books, this one has a wicked cliffhanger too. The only thing that would have made this story better for me would be more Tiggy.
Michael Lesley doesn’t simply narrate this book, he performs. And his performance is spectacular. There’s never any doubt which character is speaking. His performances bring Klune’s epic storytelling to life. I can’t imagine anyone else being the voice of Verana.
RATING: 
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