Hidden by Benedict Jacka

With his talent for divining the future, Alex Verus should have foreseen his friends’ reactions to the revelations about his previous life. Anne Walker no longer trusts him—and has also cut all ties with the mage community after getting kicked out of the apprentice program. As a favor to Luna, Alex’s own apprentice and Anne’s best friend, he checks in on her only to be told to leave her alone. Then Anne gets kidnapped. The Council Keepers of the Order of the Star believe Dark mages from her past may be involved. Working with the Keepers, Alex and Luna discover that Anne has been taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, and they must find a way to rescue her. But another shadow from the past has resurfaced—Alex’s former master may be back in London, and Alex has no idea what his agenda is…

Hidden
Benedict Jacka

CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-7
W-8
P-8
I-8
L-9
E-10
TOTAL-8.29/10

CAWPILECharactersLot of growth and understanding of Anne, plus some growth for Alex.Sonder still being dumb, but potentially coming around. More Caldera Less Luna ☹AtmosphereMore time spent in Sagash's Shadow Realm which isn't that specialWritingSolid writing, lots of putting characters into hard places and watching them struggle through it.PlotEverybody says that Richard is back, Then Anne gets kidnapped. And that's the storyInvestmentCan't stop reading. Does such interesting things with the characters and plot. It's tough to know what is the end game for the series.LogicEnjoymentAbsolutely love this seriesMiscThe Blink Fox.Richard is back and wants Alex to work for him.Annes' dual personality. She's thinking it, just not saying it.Infiltrating Party and the guy shows up. Onyx
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/ on 07/10/2022

I really like Alex and his friends.

. . . man, I have really missed Alex. Everyone's favorite diviner has really come a long way, lately – shedding the near lone-wolf thing, and is now looking after a passel of magic rookies. Whether they want him to or not.

Anne Walker is definitely in the “or not” category. She's done all she can to stay away from Alex – but she probably didn't mean to include being kidnapped as one of those ways. Alex goes to some pretty dark places to help someone who doesn't want it.

At the same time, Alex (via the Council) is feeling some pressure for the events of the last book. They're also pressuring him to do some official work for them. Plus the rumors are getting more and more intense that his mentor, Richard, is back. If that's true, no one is going to be happy. Naturally, everyone thinks that Alex knows what Richard is up to. And every time he says he doesn't, he convinces them that he does.

So yeah, Alex has his hands full.

I think it was Chekhov who said that if a magic user grabs a focus in the opening chapters, that by the end of the book . . . Anyway, that was a nice use of it.

Not that Alex has had an easy life over the last couple books (or we wouldn't be reading them) but the one big take away from Hidden is that it's going to get a lot worse for our friend. There are other take aways, mostly happier, but I'll leave that to you to find.

A wholly satisfying read. Get to know Alex Verus.