I enjoyed this tremendously! It definitely amped up my interest in the trilogy and I could see why other readers love it. It improved the characters we already met while introducing new ones. The action was better this time around, the politics (which was already good in the first one) were even more interesting this time. I’ve grown to like politics in fantasies, especially when they’re done well and that’s the case here.

I like wars and battles (in fantasy books) but I like the lead-up to the war more. Figuring out who your allies are, whom you can trust and what secrets can you tell them. Lin really grew as a character in here. She had to take on a lot of extra responsibility and grow into her power. Jovis just continues to be my utter favourite throughout the series. He’s funny, he’s good, he’s just… Jovis, I don’t know what to tell you. The others (Phalue etc) were a bit more interesting this time around but I still had to make myself pay attention when it were their chapters. I did like how they all had to take up more responsibility too, just like Lin does, but they’re all extremely different people. The focus is a bit more on Lin and Jovis – plots, characterisation, so I didn’t feel too bad about having difficulty reading it. 

Stewart only improved on the world-building and magic system in here, She definitely shines in those aspects and I hope that stays by her others books (I plan to read the new one this year – hopefully). I’m always happy to follow an author if it means I get good worldbuilding and magic system. I don’t think I got that “Second Book Slump” feeling that a bunch of sequels tend to have – which I’m happy about. Seeing as I wasn’t entirely enjoying the first book, I’m glad I felt better this time around.