This fell short for me in so many ways. 

Here's the thing. I asked for more politics. And yeah, the author delivered. I got more politics, and I was so dang excited for it. BUT. We spend the majority of the book going from counselor to counselor having the exact same conversations trying to get people over to their side. I got bored after number two. Like, come on. I will say, Asea was pretty great rigging everything up to go exactly her way, and I love her for it. Honestly, her character is the best part of this duology. And this (quite) boring book. 

Rhone has zero personality and is as boring as boring comes. There's hardly even a point of him being in this book. And the romance, if you can even call it that, is a joke. At what point do these two even get to know each other? What even is there to.know.about Rhone? He's literally got zero dimension to him. 

Here's my biggest gripe of all. I read two books waiting for the shoe to drop and for Rhone to figure out Asea's true identity, and there was WAY more emphasis on Seyin finding out who she really was than there.was with the King finding out. She was all “I'm tired of telling this story” by the time she got to Rhone. It RUINED this series for me. I wanted this huge explosion of emotion and love and honestly and… ANYTHING. All I got was a “why am I not dead?”. Ugh. The biggest letdown ever. Honestly. 


Book 2, way better than book 1. But still, just not for me.