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A review by history_bot
Flights of Marigold by Susan Forest
2.0
Read my full review over on my blog!
Flights of Marigold is the second book in the Addicted to Heaven series by Susan Forest, and hits the shelves today, August 11. I’m very appreciative to Netgalley and Laksa Media Groups for the opportunity to read and review this eARC, and you can also read my review of the first book, Bursts of Fire. To recap my review of Book 1: the characters were compelling and the story had a lot of potential, but the pacing and plot issues made it a struggle to get through, and I was hoping that these issues would be fixed in the next installment.
And in good news, they were! For the most part, anyway. Rather than trying to cram two years of events into one book, in order to cover all of the back story, Flights of Marigold takes place over an abbreviated time span of a few months. Janat is struggling more with her addiction to glim, causing her to abuse alcohol and potions, and Meg realizes that they need to leave the uprisers in order to care for her. Janat wants to stay with their sister, Rennika, and when Meg hears a rumor that the true Amber might be there, instead of smashed by King Huwen, she agrees. If she can recover the Amber prayer stone, she can travel to Heaven and the gods can grant her prayers, as well as provide prayer stones for the people so that when they die, they can go to Heaven.
Flights of Marigold did live up to a lot of the potential that Bursts of Fire had, and I think that Forest is definitely improving and I’m sure that the series is on an upward trend. However, an instance of biphobia—as well as the lack of diversity in the series, and the coopting of an East Asian setting even though the characters seem very white, which I talked about in my Bursts of Fire review—means that this series really isn’t worth it to me, which is a shame because I still think the magic system is one of the most interesting that I’ve come across. I wish the best of luck to Susan Forest, and hope that she’ll be able to improve these aspects in her writing.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Flights of Marigold is the second book in the Addicted to Heaven series by Susan Forest, and hits the shelves today, August 11. I’m very appreciative to Netgalley and Laksa Media Groups for the opportunity to read and review this eARC, and you can also read my review of the first book, Bursts of Fire. To recap my review of Book 1: the characters were compelling and the story had a lot of potential, but the pacing and plot issues made it a struggle to get through, and I was hoping that these issues would be fixed in the next installment.
And in good news, they were! For the most part, anyway. Rather than trying to cram two years of events into one book, in order to cover all of the back story, Flights of Marigold takes place over an abbreviated time span of a few months. Janat is struggling more with her addiction to glim, causing her to abuse alcohol and potions, and Meg realizes that they need to leave the uprisers in order to care for her. Janat wants to stay with their sister, Rennika, and when Meg hears a rumor that the true Amber might be there, instead of smashed by King Huwen, she agrees. If she can recover the Amber prayer stone, she can travel to Heaven and the gods can grant her prayers, as well as provide prayer stones for the people so that when they die, they can go to Heaven.
Flights of Marigold did live up to a lot of the potential that Bursts of Fire had, and I think that Forest is definitely improving and I’m sure that the series is on an upward trend. However, an instance of biphobia—as well as the lack of diversity in the series, and the coopting of an East Asian setting even though the characters seem very white, which I talked about in my Bursts of Fire review—means that this series really isn’t worth it to me, which is a shame because I still think the magic system is one of the most interesting that I’ve come across. I wish the best of luck to Susan Forest, and hope that she’ll be able to improve these aspects in her writing.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.