A new quest awaits for Lief, Jasmine and Barda.

The Belt of Deltora has been remade and the King of Deltora restored to the throne but all is not well in the land of Deltora. The people are frightened for their loved ones who are held prisoner in the Shadowlands. Lief wants to rescue them but fears he cannot unless he can find a weapon to defeat the Shadow Lord - or at least buy them enough time to get everyone out.

But he is heartened to find that the Head Librarian, Josef has returned to the palace and has brought with him a treasure thought destroyed - the Deltora Annals - books about the history of Deltora, the legends and myths and adventures that may contain a clue.

One such tale is that of the Pirran Pipe said to be broken apart and scattered over the hidden islands of the Pirran people. Lief, Jasmine and Barda set out to find the truth.

Like The Isle of Illusion, The Shadowlands picks up immediately follow the previous book's ending. Lief, Jasmine and Barda have recovered two parts of the Pirran Pipe and are headed towards the location of their third task, the island of Keras.

Like the first two book, the narrative is fast paced and packed with action and adventure. The plot is littered with magic and monsters and the mighty quest to free the prisoners in the Shadowlands and it was good.

The Keras are won over pretty easily - they only ask for an item most precious to be handed over in exchange until the Pipe is returned to them. Lief is asked to give up the Belt of Deltora and while Barda freaks out - Lief makes some good arguments - they're going to the Shadowlands, the Belt can't leave Deltora and the underground land of Pirran would have to be one of the safest places possible to hide an item of value. Lief, Jasmine and Barda are joined by a new friend, Emlis - a Keras native who can play the pipe - because that's one thing they may have overlooked - none of them are musical.

So three become four and Barda is back to playing nursemaid;

Barda ran his hands through his tousled hair in despair. ‘Three of them,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Three young hot-heads. By the heavens, were not two bad enough?’

Emily Rodda. DQ2 #3: SHADOWLANDS . Scholastic. Kindle Edition.

The journey into the Shadowlands is beset by danger but they manage to find a few friends in some unexpected places. Glock's brother, Gers makes an appearance. I'm still bitter about Glock though. They uncover some truly creepy Shadow Lord experiments and manage to get themselves captured but at the last moment, manage to save themselves and the rest of the prisoners.

I was glad that Lief and Jasmine sort themselves out but their drama was ridiculous and irritating. I did like that they have reached an unspoken understanding about their feelings for one another and what the future may hold. I mean it would've been better if they had of managed to voice those thoughts but okay. It's not like they can read each other's minds - if they could there wouldn't have been a trilogy of misunderstandings about Marilen. The reveal about Marilen was amusing. I'm glad that she's not a fiance but a cousin. And that they found a whole bunch of other heirs to take the Belt if necessary. I still don't get why Doom and Lief couldn't have told Jasmine and Barda about the Belt and Marilen but it was all resolved.

A satisfying conclusion to the Pirran Pipe trilogy. 5 stars. ( )

This is the first Deltora book where we learn the back story of some of the big baddie's minions - I felt quite sympathetic. ( )