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A review by felicitydarke
The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
3.0
3.25 Stars!
There were so many great things about this book, but something was just keeping me from enjoying it was much as I could have.
The pacing on this second book was pretty similar to the first one - not super fast paced, but steady enough so as not to get boring.
The thing that made this book stand out for me was the vision/time travel element. No spoilers, but it added something that I could never have expected and gave a good insight into the world. The issue was that at some points, I much preferred reading about Lily than I did about Kelsea. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, because although it did take attention away from the main plot, it also provided a refreshing break from the pretty standard war/siege storyline that we had going on elsewhere.
In terms of the main plot, like I said, it’s pretty average, and in some ways I felt that it lacked development. That’s not to say that the characters didn’t grow - Kelsea has come a long way since book one - but it’s just that certain traits and facts seemed to come out of nowhere, and didn’t always entirely make sense. What I do admire, though, is Johansen’s ability to write flawed characters. This was most prevalent in Kelsea during this story (things got pretty scary at some points), but it’s definitely present throughout. On the flip side, I also think that she writes great villains as well as morally grey characters - there’s always a strong temptation to write in black-and-white, and she doesn’t succumb to that.
Something else that didn’t always make sense was that the Lily/Kelsea narrative got really blurred towards the end, and maybe that was intentional to reflect Kelsea’s state of mind, but it was rather disorienting and detracted a little from what was otherwise a great and tense finale.
Erika Johansen has done really well to set up some new characters as well as leaving a few plot threads hanging. I’m really looking forward to seeing where they go, and am planning on jumping on straight into The Fate of the Tearling tomorrow!
Overall: An average sequel that does, however, introduce some exciting and original elements.
There were so many great things about this book, but something was just keeping me from enjoying it was much as I could have.
The pacing on this second book was pretty similar to the first one - not super fast paced, but steady enough so as not to get boring.
The thing that made this book stand out for me was the vision/time travel element. No spoilers, but it added something that I could never have expected and gave a good insight into the world. The issue was that at some points, I much preferred reading about Lily than I did about Kelsea. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, because although it did take attention away from the main plot, it also provided a refreshing break from the pretty standard war/siege storyline that we had going on elsewhere.
In terms of the main plot, like I said, it’s pretty average, and in some ways I felt that it lacked development. That’s not to say that the characters didn’t grow - Kelsea has come a long way since book one - but it’s just that certain traits and facts seemed to come out of nowhere, and didn’t always entirely make sense. What I do admire, though, is Johansen’s ability to write flawed characters. This was most prevalent in Kelsea during this story (things got pretty scary at some points), but it’s definitely present throughout. On the flip side, I also think that she writes great villains as well as morally grey characters - there’s always a strong temptation to write in black-and-white, and she doesn’t succumb to that.
Something else that didn’t always make sense was that the Lily/Kelsea narrative got really blurred towards the end, and maybe that was intentional to reflect Kelsea’s state of mind, but it was rather disorienting and detracted a little from what was otherwise a great and tense finale.
Erika Johansen has done really well to set up some new characters as well as leaving a few plot threads hanging. I’m really looking forward to seeing where they go, and am planning on jumping on straight into The Fate of the Tearling tomorrow!
Overall: An average sequel that does, however, introduce some exciting and original elements.