Just finished this book, man what a dark book for this series... tho isn't the others dark also- tho this is why I love Mercedes Lackey books- I love the characters she makes and the story plots and I can't wait for the next one!

Sacrifices is a solid addition to the Shadow Grail series. This delivers exactly what a reader who has followed the series up to here would expect: lots of slow tension-building, and than an explosive pay off at the end. This one rushes quickly to a cliffhanger once it peaks at the end, and we've finally got a fairly clear picture on what the final conflict will likely be. Lines are more clearly drawn, so I am thinking that the next books may pick up a bit faster... we shall see!

Third in the Shadow Grail urban fantasy series for Young Adults and revolving around a very small cadre of school kids attempting to survive a curse in which all involved with Arthur's kingdom are "doomed to be reborn over and over until either the Shadow or the Grail triumphs".

My Take
Ohhh, Spirit's memories of the accident that claimed her family are starting to come back. Probably triggered by what Spirit learned in Conspiracies, 2!

Heck, Spirit and her friends thought life at Oakhurst was bad before. It almost seems like a paradise now that the Shadow Knights have taken over. And Lackey and Edghill really crank up the tension on this.

Sacrifices is a terrifying balancing act as the kids try to figure out who's who and on which side they fall amongst their fellow students, the faculty, and the Breakthrough employees. Friendships must be fiercely hidden even as Spirit and her friends must ferret out the Shadow Knights' plans. And people must be saved, no matter the cost.

"It's like Where's Waldo?, except now with added mortal peril," Muirin sniped.

Yes, it's tense and comes with drama galore. At times I started to think of it as a bridge story, but too much happens. Much too much that will shock you into groping for that box of Kleenex.

The authors do drive me nuts with the vague hints they drop of who of today matches up with the Grail or Shadow Knights, although they do fill in the blanks on a number of characters. I will confess that it's strong enough to make me crazy about having to wait for #4 so I can verify my own suspicions as to who Arthur, Guinevere, and Gawain have been reincarnated as!

If you've enjoyed Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy or Jennifer Estep's Mythos Academy, you'll enjoy this series.

The Story
The Shadow Knights have taken over and everything has changed from elegant dining to barracks-style brawls. Classes are brutal with an emphasis on combat and survival. Survival according to the Shadow Knights. The new curriculum makes the old look like a walk through Disney on a bright and sunny day.

Now, friendships can lead to death, and each of the friends will be tempted to join the Dark Side.

The Characters
Spirit White lost her family and learned the truth behind that loss. And she's still at a loss as to why because she has no magic. QUERCUS is the one secret she's kept even from her friends; the one who arranged for her Internet access outside the school.

Muirin Shae, an Air Witch, is a snob who loves to flout the rules, and she's hangin' with the Shadow Knights now. Ovcharenko in particular. Addie is the heir to Prester-Lake BioCo, and a Water Witch who just wants to get out of here. Loch Spears has some minor Gifts: Shadewalking and Kenning from the School of Air and Pathfinding from the School of Earth. He's also gay and sort of still in the closet. Burke Hallows, a Combat Mage, an orphan who learned the truth of his foster parents' murders, and he's in love with Spirit.

Kelly Langley is "one of the nicer proctors"; Gareth Stevenson is okay; and, Joe Rogers has simply gotten worse. Trinity Brown refuses to take Dylan's place. Dylan Williams, a Jaunting mage, had been the official ringleader back in Conspiracies; now he's Ovcharenko's chew toy.

Poor Spirit is forced onto the dance committee with Maddie Harris (Water), Kylee Williamson (Energy), Zoey Young (Fire), Christopher Terry (Weather), and Dylan. The Townies who make up the other half of the joint dance committee include Juliette Weber and her twin brother, Brett---obviously the king and queen of Macalister High; Veronica "Couch" Davenport is a fat girl everyone picks on; Kennedy Lewis is the class "bad" girl; the giggler, Erica Bass; Brenda Copeland who just has to talk about her dad---the Sheriff---all the time; and, Bella. Tom and Adam Phillips are the local townies drafted to the dance committee.

Elizabeth Walker (her Arthurian identity is as Yseult of Cornwall, Mark's wife, and Tristan's lover) is the student whose dreams provide the kernel of truth to Spirit.

Dr. Ambrosius is the headmaster. Mrs. Corby is his personal assistant although she lacks magic, and Devon is a supervisor of the Boys' Dorm Wing; both are Ambrosius' bodyguards. Ms. Jane Smith is the math teacher who likes to break everyone down. Dr. MacKenzie (Fire) is the school shrink whom everyone is supposed to visit. Ms. Bradford is the school nurse. Beckett Green is a Combat Mage brought in to help teach the defense classes---and appeal to Burke. Mia Singleton teaches the Endurance Riding class. Anastus Leontivich Ovcharenko (Agravaine), a member of the Russian Bratva or mafia and Breakthrough's head of security, is teaching the defense classes with an emphasis on hurting his chosen victim. Ms. Lily Groves teaches History of Magic and intends to do some private tutoring with Spirit.

Camelot, the Grail Knights
High Queen Guinevere intends to carry on with Arthur's legacy. The Merlin, the Archdruid of Eire, the Bishop of England, and the White Horse Woman were involved in carrying out Mordred's sentence.

The Shadow Knights
Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son and a mage, had engineered Arthur's fall and the "burial" of The Merlin. Nimue was once his ally.

Breakthrough Adventure Systems is the new big employer in Radial run by Mark Rider (King Mark of Cornwall) and Theodore Rider. They are the Shadow Knights taking over the school. Madison Lane-Rider is supermodel-perfect, Mark's wife, and she takes over the History of Magic class. Clark Howard is a coder. Ken Abrams, Judy, and Brian are all in Graphic Design. Mandy Poole is a technician.

The Hellriders were a motorcycle gang who inhabited Oakhurst before Dr. Ambrosius took it over. Stephen "Wolfman" Wolferman was a member whose three-county chase and the Hellrider Massacre was written about in a news article. Kenny is the gang member who saved Wolfman's life. Detectives Bethany Mitchell and Thomas Carter are from the Sheriff's Office in Radial.

The Riders are a modern Wild Hunt on horses and snowmobiles. Oakhurst Academy, a posh boarding school only for future magicians who have been orphaned, is in the middle of Montana near the tiny town of Radial. The school has never encouraged the students to make friends with each other, grading them on everything including their Christmas gifts. But now it's worse. The Gatekeepers were thought to be a secret society within Oakhurst.

The Cover
The cover is a battle stance of Spirit in her below-the-knee turquoise gown with its stardust shrug against (or back-to-back with!) Muirin in black lace and lamé, both wearing dresses provided by Breakthrough for the school dance.

The title presages events, the Sacrifices that will be made.

i was so mad this wasn’t the last book, and i had to slog through one more. awful.

Enjoyed the book - exactly what I'd come to expect from the series (which means, yes, there's a formula... but sometimes that's what you want to read).

What I didn't realize until I got close to the end is that this book isn't actually the last book of a trilogy. It's the middle book of one of those new and popular five- or seven- book series. So I'm a little peeved that I didn't get the satisfying ending I was hoping for, but instead got a temporary respite.

Not as bad as I was expecting since Misty has been failing lately. It was terribly depressing, if I were a character in this book I would have given up! The ending was a cliffhanger so I will have to read the next one just to find out what happens but I think there are only 4 books in the series.

This is far better than the previous two books. There was still a sudden ending, but I could overlook that. Without giving anything away,(I hope!) by the end of this book, you'll know who is the villain, what the villain wants, and kind of who's on Spirit's side. It gets a little predictable, too, but it's not so predictable that you already know the end, just maybe a page or two ahead every once in a while. Also, the ending may crush you in grief and guilt. Just a warning.

I was starting to lose interest in this series, but luckily, I read this, and am fully committed to the last book.

Omg, such a mess. I mean the series wasn’t that interesting to begin with, but it was fairly easy and ok to read. And since I’ve finished the first and second book it seemed a shame not to finish the whole series. But come on, it’s starting to become a complete mess. Conspiracies, demons chasing after the main characters, then not exactly demons, then some creepy totalitarian company trying to brainwash them, the the rings which afterwards weren’t so relevant to the story anymore, then the mythological part, and none of these events receiving a clear and detailed explanation. I mean really? It’s like the authors were not sure which main theme to focus on and they kept mixing and changing and throwing events until the only thing that resulted was a complete mess. And now with the world destruction. Really? A complete nonsense and it keeps getting worse.

The plot's taking a little long to develop, and unfortunately the characters didn't grow much either. Breakthrough are still Evil, Spirit doesn't know who to trust, QUERCUS is still a mystery... and life at Oakhurst is basically continuing as normal. It builds a little more on the Arthur mythos, and I can see the series finally going somewhere, but even as YA the whole plot-character thing is a little thin for my tastes. I hope the next book is the end of the series.

I finally figured out what's been niggling at me about this series, it reads like the novelization of a TV series. That's not a dig, just something stylistic.