A review by purnuhja
Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Not a bad story, but this did not work for me.

I enjoyed Elm and Ione as side characters in the first book, but I didn't enjoy reading his perspective, especially when it took up so much of the book. I didn't find their romance compelling and honestly just hard to get through.

This book had more of an ensemble feel compared to the first one which I would've been okay with if the first one had an ensemble feel. This felt like Elspeth's story and that the second book took that away from her. I wish we could've see more of her and the Nightmare, as well as her relationship with Ravyn. I thought the overall story and mystery was interesting, and I enjoyed digging into the Nightmare's past and how everything came to be as it was. I liked how morally ambiguous everything was in the past and the court politics Elm experienced, I just struggled with the execution.