[Please note this is a review of a second book in series and as such, may include information that could be considered a spoiler for book 1.]

With thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this as an ARC ahead of publication. 

Where do I even begin with this review? I’ve just flown through this in a few hours and I can honest say I loved it just as much as the first. Brigid Kemmerer has firmly cemented herself as a favourite author and this as a favourite series. 

In this second instalment of the Forging Silver into Stars trilogy, we are once again following Tycho, Jax and Callyn, although their lives have changed quite dramatically. The King’s Courier, Tycho, having struck a dangerous bargain finds himself beholden to the magical scrivener who saved King Grey’s life. Meanwhile Jax travels to Emberfall and finds life very different away from his small town, and Callyn finds herself in the Syhl Shallow court at the Queen’s side, a place she never expected to find herself. Apart from each other, Tycho, Jax and Callyn must navigate a tense political situation before the situation turns dire. 

We pick up in this instalment pretty much immediately where the first book finishes. While the action continues, this does have a slower pace, allowing us more time to spend with the characters as individuals. This continues throughout – while we remain in suspense as the political tension continues to build, we really get to know our characters at a deeper level. 

As in Forging, we spend time with each of our three main characters, which is important as actually they spend little time with each other. We see Jax flourish now he’s out from under his father’s thumb despite the initially tense situation he finds himself in, we see Callyn navigating the royal court and a relationship the royal family – massively unexpected considering her previous feelings on them – and we see Tycho, split between his loyalties, really start to find himself. I do think that we again spend less time with Callyn which was frustrating as times as I think her perspective is an important one, both to the stories as a whole and the events of this particular book as she offers a different perspective on magic due to her own experiences of it, and an important voice for Queen Lia Mara and Syhl Shallow in this book where Emberfall, Grey and Rhen much more prevalent in Jax and Tycho’s narratives. Each character’s storyline was engaging and I found myself torn between excited to move on to the next and sad that I had to leave someone I was enjoying spending time with each time the POV switched. 

I found the relationships one of the most interesting aspects of the book. Not just those with each other, but those around them as well. I loved the development of the relationship between Callyn, Lia Mara, Nora and Sinna, intrigued by her treatment by Grey and really unsure on my feelings about her interactions with Alek. For Jax, I truly felt for him in his initial dealing with the residents of Emberfall, and then so proud to see how he grew in confidence and friendships with others. Tycho’s relationships both with those around him and with himself remained at the forefront of the book. We get to see him grow and find friendships outside of the narrow circle he has, particularly important as the tension between him and Grey ramps up throughout the book. 

Despite the slightly slower pace, Brigid Kemmerer masterfully moves the plot along, both through the character development mentioned but also with moments of high action and intensity, particularly with the ‘threat’ of magic, and the scravers which are prevalent in this book. I went through a whole range of emotions alongside the characters while reading and it was virtually impossible to put the book down. A solid second book that in no way suffers from middle-book syndrome for me, I cannot wait to see what comes next for these characters.