I am still enjoying this series, but there was a lot of darkness in this book. It was good, I just wish I had read it at a time when I didn't want a light book. I still can't wait to read he third in the trilogy.

Great storytelling as always from McIntosh.

2.5 stars. It was ok, but not great. I'll read the final book just to see what happens but will probably skim read it!

I gave the first book three stars because although there were flaws they weren't bad enough to stop me enjoying the story overall and I hoped it would get better. This one is actually worse than the first and only just deserving of the two stars I have given it. I have already bought the third book, but at this stage I don't know whether or not I will bother with it. It's all the more annoying because of how promising the storyline is - it really is an interesting story, but there are just too many little irritations that get in the way of my enjoyment.

Here is a list of things that annoyed me. I have put some slight spoilers towards the bottom of the list so you can just read the first part if you want to avoid them. Major spoilers are tagged.

1) It starts with a chapter in a parallel universe (not really a spoiler because it is literally the opening of the book). I don't mind stories with parallel universes, but this one really annoyed me because there was no indication of it in the first book and I don't think you can introduce something so radical this far in to a story when it has never been mentioned previously.
2) Ten years have passed between the first and second books, but somehow very little has changed and the characters haven't really grown/matured/changed at all. Others change so wildly that they don't feel like the same character at all, and only vague, unsatisfactory reasons are given to explain what happened.
3) Some characters fall in and out of love almost instantly (this happens in the first book too) and make stupid decisions because of their 'love' for characters they have only known for a few days. Other characters spend over ten years remembering one person they loved ages ago and that they could never get over, which seems just as ridiculous.
4) Children speak in the same way as adults, to the point that I was flipping back through previous chapters to remind myself how old characters were meant to be. I don't expect them to use baby-talk, but they would know less about the world and probably ask more questions.

Spoiler

Roddy in particular, when he speaks to Ravan at the end of the book, sounds much more like an adult than a child, even though he's meant to be about ten/eleven. That also means he wouldn't really remember the Valisars, except for what he'd heard from his family, but that's never mentioned!

5) There is a bit where a character actually says the words "[Character's name], we meet again". Unironically. Need I say more?

SPOILERS (major spoilers are tagged):
6) This is linked to point 2 - A character spends ten of his formative years - basically his teenage years - living with an outlaw band in a forest, but he somehow speaks and acts completely differently to the rest of the outlaws.
7) Following on from that, another character with memory loss spends TEN YEARS wondering who they really are, before eventually deciding to investigate. That's already pretty unbelievable, but on top of that the character is then very happy to believe what they are told about themselves and inexplicably pick up pretty much where they left off before the memory loss, with ALL their memories intact. Essentially their memory loss was just a convenient plot device to keep them away from the main action for a while, which is lazy and a bit lame.
8) Characters seem to be able to work out what other characters are thinking, or what their motivations are, from the tiniest of clues. "Oh here's a

Spoiler

fire with a half-eaten hand

in it, that must mean so-and-so was here and did this thing which I happened to have heard about ages ago and which I suddenly remembered just now." I just don't buy it.
9) Characters who shouldn't really remember each other somehow do.

Spoiler

Gavriel instantly recognizes the name Kirin Felt and knows exactly who he is, even though Kirin would have only been around in the castle at the same time as Gavriel for a few days, and Gav surely had other things on his mind.

A simple "hmm, where do I know that name from?" and a short explanation would have been much more believable.
10) It's a bit too convenient that people always end up in the right place at the right time - MASSIVE SPOILERS HERE:

Spoiler

Piven is in a tiny village just in time to save Roddy, who *happens* to be an ageis, at least that seems to be hinted at very strongly; and Gavriel just *happens* to get his memory back in time to literally stumble across the emperor in a wood.

I know that this is how stories work, but usually there is at least an acknowledgement that the timing is unusual, or a decent reason for all the characters to be heading in the same direction. Here, it just feels like lazy storytelling.

One of the few books I did not finish. I don't know why I did like the first book, but was so incredibly bored by the second. It may have to do with the fact that, in book 1, lots of people are being murdered, the young prince has to play a deadly sort of hide-and-seek, and stuff is just constantly happening. Book 2 delves more into the characters themselves, and I found that they lack personality. The dialogues are so incredibly unrealistic, too long and just simply boring, that they made it hard for me to continue this book. After months of not picking it up, I finally tried again today. Only to be treated with a 4 page conversation that could've taken place in less than half that space.

So, too much telling, almost no showing. Every emotion and character's thought is explicitly stated (they either say it, or the narrator just throws in 'he felt disappointed/bored').

So, did not finish, would not recommend.

I need to know what happens next!! So many twists!

An excellent fantasy series.

This was a very slow read for me but it is just so epic.

10 years have passed since the end of book 1, Royal Exile, and King Leonel has grown to be a young man. Is he ready to claim his throne? Whether he is ready or not, others are putting their own plans into motion.

There were many perspectives in this novel and there were just as many twists and turns! That ending though was pretty nearly mind-blowing. I am curious about the conclusion (book 3) but will probably take my time to get it because even if I enjoyed these 2 books, they were actually really slow and a little bit painful. I'm still giving it 4 stars for the complex weave of this universe.