I also reread Children of Virtue and Vengeance as an audiobook, and this time around it landed as four stars for me. 

I appreciated how heartbreaking this book rightly had to be based on the story it was presenting. I also think that Inan and Zélie struggling with their ideals of magic was so well done. It takes a lot of skill to write enemies beginning to change their minds and switch positions on an issue–essentially coming to see things through the other person’s eyes, but in a way that had them nearly switching sides and thus still disagreeing. I think Adeyemi did that so beautifully.

I also loved the introduction of a new love interest in Roën! But in the end, I wasn’t as enamored of this book as I was of book one, so it came out to four stars for me.