Let’s talk the fact I did like this, even though this review is sounding negative: Of course, we already had an excellent character like this who was cast aside, but it will be really exciting if Lia Mara and Harper can exist together in a future novel. She is strong, she is brave, she is conflicted, the voice of reason, and the kick-in-the-ass to Grey that he so desperately needed throughout this sequel. For the same reasons I liked Harper, I liked Lia Mara. The daughter of Karis Luran, Lia Mara is an intelligent, empathetic born leader (but is not heir to the throne because she is not evil enough) and was the bright spot here.

I need a character to be working toward a goal, something needs to be driving them … otherwise they are just left floating in a circular character arc, and it is annoying as a reader to follow. This could just be a personal pet peeve of mine, but continuous back & forth inner turmoil within a character for hundreds of pages just irks me. I knew we’d be following Grey, but I didn’t anticipate losing all other characters’ progress from book one.įor a book that followed my second favourite character of this series, I’m a bit undecided about him in this one! The central conflict within Grey got a little exhaustive.

This may be redeemed in book three, but it seems unlikely. SPOILER: Rhen is pretty damningly changed and in doing so cuts off Harper’s character arc. It wasn’t because it went in a completely different direction from the series opener, nor was it the fact that Harper and Rhen have very little appearance here … it’s that the characters I really enjoyed and their progress from the series opener were just cast away in this sequel. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love this one as much as book one.

Being that ACSD&L was one of my favourite YA Fantasy reads of 2019, I was very nervous going into this one. Sequels of a beloved series opener have a tough job.

A heart fierce and broken