I never post reviews of sequels, but I got to read this one early, and I was just so disappointed in it that I had to share. I'm so sorry Lauren.
This review will absolutely have Book 1 spoilers in it, so tread carefully...you've been warned.
Synopsis: The sophomore novel continues to follow Kai, Kitt, and Paedyn immediately after the events that concluded Book 1. Paedyn is on the run once again after killing the king and betraying not only the country of Illya but the man she claimed to love. Kai, the official enforcer now is sent out on a job, by his brother Kitt, the newly appointed king, to track her down and bring her back for punishment.
Plot: I hate to be one of the first people to really review this and give it anything less than a 5…but what a disappointing read. I was SOSO looking forward to this after LOVING the first, but this book honestly did not need to be written. We start and end the book in almost the exact same place. 300 pages of the book are filled with the EXACT same thing… how many times can we run back and forth from one place to another? It wasn't a one star because I like this world and (usually!) like these characters, despite Paedyn pissing me off this entire book. I would have definitely preferred this series as a duology though; and think it would have been a lot more tight, plot-wise, if this middle book was cut. The cliffhanger was exciting I guess, but I knew it was going to happen as soon as a certain aspect of it was introduced, so it wasn’t a shock at all. There was no foreshadowing, it was just like “here, this is going to be the end.” It is also really hard to ignore the incredibly large pulls from her "inspirations" of The Hunger Games and The Red Queen. Like the city is the exact same name, come on now. The writing style was the biggest offender for me. It became so repetitive that every sentence read the exact same in structure and in feeling which made for a non enjoyable reading experience and not enough difference between the POVs. It was so annoying to read forced flowery sentences one after the other where every single one is over the top.
Characters: The characters also really fell off for me in this one as well, and I think it mostly came down, again, to the writing. I know this is YA, but some of the writing was realllly getting juvenile and cringy at times. The banter that I loved so much in the first came off as childish and immature in this one. None of the characters had any growth and seemingly regressed in development.
Really hoping book 3 brings it all home because I really wanted to love this.
Kai’s romantic one-liners really saved this from being one star.
Also really hoping we get another novella for this one because Lauren KILLED that.
Side note: “____ incarnate” is my trigger word. It’s not a common phrase. Why is it used so often in fantasy. Please stop I beg.
2/5 stars.
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