A review by evitaveda
Empress Crowned in Red by Ciannon Smart

3.0

“Every story is a lie until someone breathes truth into it.”

The sequel to Witches Steeped in Gold definitely upped the stakes, but it didn’t capture me in the same way the first one did. 

There’s a lot of politics in this one and I feel like I was confused or not understanding things a lot of the time. The book is also almost 800 pages long, and when a lot of those pages were focused on politics, it did lose me a little bit. 

What Smart does really well though, is character development. I have really enjoyed seeing how Jazmyne, Iraya and Kirdan have evolved throughout the story. I definitely liked all the character moments best - and any scene between Iraya and Jazmyne always sparked my excitement. Definitely wish there had been more of those. The very end of the book was full to the brim with exciting action. The betrayal, the heartache, in short, the whole ending of the book was presented in a very engaging way. 

All in all a satisfying end to the duology, and I’m looking forward to picking up future books from this author. 

Some great quotes:

“This world will be saved by those who love, not destroy.”

“War makes heroes out of few and villains out of most.”

“Love is the anchor that keeps us living.”

“There is no magic more powerful than self-belief.”