adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So beautiful.  I loved this book
adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Exquisite that’s all I can say about the duology.  

kaivega's review

4.0

I feel that the plot was a bit rushed, especially by the end of the book, but I had fun and it made me Feel Things
adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Man, that ending hurt. Almost got me crying at work. 

I really liked how this story went through each plot point. Seeing Lan and Zen develop throughout this story is such an organic yet beautiful way really helped to solidify these characters for me. Even the side characters, like Dilaya, had so much character development from the first book and I grew attached to all of them. 

Even though the introduction to one of the main antagonists was pretty late into the story, that arc didn’t feel super incomplete. Granted, I do think more could have been done with that character, but it wasn’t too jeopardizing. 

A lot of the flowery dialogue I didn’t like in the first book was fixed in this one. The characters talked in a way that wasn’t so stilted and actually made them sound their age. 

Overall, a pretty solid ending to this Duology! I think the author did a great job with what she had, even if it wasn’t the most jaw dropping fantasy I’ve ever read, but that’s okay because I don’t expect that for every fantasy book I read. I look forward to seeing what else she has in store. 

Само в източна приказка, саможертвата може да изглежда толкова романтична, че да има вид на щастлив край.
Една чудесна приказка за доброто, злото и баланса с типичната буйна и красива китайска митология.

linde_ahobbit's profile picture

linde_ahobbit's review

2.75
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Not really sure how to rate this book. I liked it a bit more than the first one, but only just. The same problems the first book had arise here as well. I'm reaaally not feeling the romance, and it's such a big part of the book. That said, I do respect the ending and liked that it went there.
how convenient tho, that Lan got pregnant through the one and only time they had sex lol
The side characters were so underdeveloped, they had nothing to do, especially Shàn'jūn. I really like him but he was sidelined completely and was very one dimentional because of it. I really disliked how Zen and Lan kept information from each other and everyone else. Lan never told anyone that Dé zî
was her father
which felt so weird to me. It never added anything to the story or had any impact anyway. Why did Zen never inform Lan or Chó Tài that Shàn'jūn was still alive? It really really bothered me and makes Zen and Lan seem extremely selfish. And I'm curious about the Elantians. Why did they retreat afther the demon gods
were defeated? They are so powerfull, they could just come back right? We never learnt anything about their powers or anything...
I'm sad I didn't enjoy this duology. 
adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated