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eternallyicarian's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
An amazing continuation to what I consider one of my favorite new YA series. Just like I did with the first book, I adored all of the characters, and the historical accuracy that is often ignored by many others (not everyone in Jacobean England was white and heterosexual), and this book felt even more queer than the first. Not so much in the sense that it was made a larger part of the book, but more so that it was normalized within the group of Shakespearean players. On that note, one of the aspects that I was most anticipating throughout the novel, and something I wrote in the review for the first book (which I also received as an audio ARC back in April– this is certainly a first for getting them both) was the potential for polyamory as opposed to a love triangle. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I was more than happy with the way that that plotline developed in the book, although there was still some fun relationship drama that was resolved fairly quickly to spice things up.
I read the first book through audio because of how excited I was to access a copy– it was actually the second audiobook I have ever read– first if you don’t include the reading of Shakespeare’s the Two Noble Kinsmen, and now I ended up reading this book in the same voice as the narrator, which is an equally new phenomenon, and I did not realize how many names I was spelling wrong in my head.
Overall, read the book it’s amazing and better than the first, and I cannot wait for book three even though I do not want to leave the characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Murder, and Death
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