I requested and was approved for an advanced reader copy of this book before I finished reading the first book in the series, Tess of the Road. This was a mistake. The first book had some good aspects, but its handling of gender, as well as a few other aspects, made it really hard for me to get through. So I started this second book optimistic that it would be better. Unfortunately, the characters continued to be awful and various serious issues continued to be treated poorly.

I might pick this one up again sometime, but for now, it’s a no from me. I still love Rachel Hartman’s previous two books in this universe, Seraphina and Shadow Scale, but I don’t really recommend these ones.