ninaprime 's review for:

Thron in Flammen: Roman by Brian Staveley

3.0

---

2.5 stars - Really disappointed in this sequel, since I loved the first book in the series. Kaden, Valyn, and Adare all had unique perspectives and journeys in book 1 and I was looking forward to them teaming up to defeat their common enemies. Unfortunately the siblings' character development quickly unravels, and they continue to be at odds with each other because of shitty communication skills and poor decision-making. This drama felt unnecessary and unrewarding. Unlike other readers, I didn't particularly like Gwenna (the other POV) or any of the side characters either, possibly because I had forgotten their motivations/plotlines. Additionally, while I was intrigued by the magical and spiritual systems set in place in book 1, especially the Csestriim and the leaches, this book added in a plethora of gods who also had absurd amounts of power and were just hanging around masquerading as humans. Worse, all the key villains are actually gods, which just made me feel like all of the characters' struggles were pointless as everything is just a giant dei ex machina. I probably won't finish the series since I have no confidence from the reviews that these issues will be resolved.