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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'm still continuing this trilogy despite not enjoying the first book at all, mostly for research purposes to see what's trending in YA Fantasy right now. This book is certainly much better than book 1, with a stronger plot and more compelling worldbuilding, but the characters are still poorly presented and the execution of relationship development once again missed the mark for me.
The author still has this tendency to give pay offs with no set up- there are so many scenes where the protagonist suddenly knows something important, either to decieve or one-up another character, and we are never shown how she acquired this knowledge or get any of her thoughts about it, and it's extremely jarring. The protagonist also jumps around doing reckless things and it clashes with her prior behaviours of being cautious and cunning- she's really not written consistently at all and the out of character moments irked me. It leaves you with a feeling that you missed something in the narrative but really it's just omission and it breaks the story flow. This is doubly annoying as scenes which don't need much attention get bloated up and drag on (especially the middle third) where the pacing collapsed for me.
The characters have a little more depth now, but the romance ruins it. Scenes will jump from forced miscommunication conflict which is resolved within a page, arguments have no stakes to them, the male characters act like hormonal drooling idiots...perhaps all part and parcel of expected romance tropes, but it utterly detracts from the plot (which actually intrigued me now) and serves as nothing but a distraction. I still don't care for the male leads' relationship to the protagonist because it comes across so forced and they literally have no reason to care for her other than 'hmm she's hot'.
An improvement on book one for sure but that's not really saying much given how much I did not like that anyway. Will push on and read the last book but definitely not coming back to this series once done.
The author still has this tendency to give pay offs with no set up- there are so many scenes where the protagonist suddenly knows something important, either to decieve or one-up another character, and we are never shown how she acquired this knowledge or get any of her thoughts about it, and it's extremely jarring. The protagonist also jumps around doing reckless things and it clashes with her prior behaviours of being cautious and cunning- she's really not written consistently at all and the out of character moments irked me. It leaves you with a feeling that you missed something in the narrative but really it's just omission and it breaks the story flow. This is doubly annoying as scenes which don't need much attention get bloated up and drag on (especially the middle third) where the pacing collapsed for me.
The characters have a little more depth now, but the romance ruins it. Scenes will jump from forced miscommunication conflict which is resolved within a page, arguments have no stakes to them, the male characters act like hormonal drooling idiots...perhaps all part and parcel of expected romance tropes, but it utterly detracts from the plot (which actually intrigued me now) and serves as nothing but a distraction. I still don't care for the male leads' relationship to the protagonist because it comes across so forced and they literally have no reason to care for her other than 'hmm she's hot'.
An improvement on book one for sure but that's not really saying much given how much I did not like that anyway. Will push on and read the last book but definitely not coming back to this series once done.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In questo secondo libro, la storia è ancora un po' lenta, ma
il worldbuilding è davvero intrigante e ben fatto, e l'atmosfera carica di tensione tiene incollati alle pagine. Il cambiamento che stanno vivendo i personaggi in questo seguito è gestito piuttosto bene, solo qualche piccola incongruenza, soprattutto in Kaden. Un libro breve ma intenso.
Recensione completa✨️
il worldbuilding è davvero intrigante e ben fatto, e l'atmosfera carica di tensione tiene incollati alle pagine. Il cambiamento che stanno vivendo i personaggi in questo seguito è gestito piuttosto bene, solo qualche piccola incongruenza, soprattutto in Kaden. Un libro breve ma intenso.
Recensione completa✨️
adventurous
inspiring
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:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder
This took me a month to finish. Honestly it was SO slow. I heard so many people rave how this was better than the first, but I loved the first book better. The feels in the first book were much stronger and I really loved Kaden & Rafe in the first book more. Although Lia was a total bad ass in this book. Looking forward still to the last book as the ending did pick up!
Definitely suggest the audiobook for this series. I enjoyed listening to the second book more than reading the first. There is just a lot of internal monologue which I'd rather be read to me than read myself. There is also a number of narrators which I love.
This is a really solid young adult fantasy series. A lot of moving parts, a lot of characters. I'm not sure what to expect in the last book but I'm excited to continue.
This is a really solid young adult fantasy series. A lot of moving parts, a lot of characters. I'm not sure what to expect in the last book but I'm excited to continue.
4.5 ⭐️ way better than the first one. So much character development!! Excited to see how it all ends.