“We're the children of the gods." I lift my chin. "If someone's running away, it's not going to be us.”

This was the fantasy version of playing Episode with no gems.

I have never (that's a slight exaggeration) seen so many characters make every single wrong decision possible. There wasn't a single, solitary erudite decision made on the political, emotional, or literally any other front. When faced with two options, the characters somehow found a secret third option that was worse than if they'd just done nothing. (And it wasn't just the children, but the adults too.)

I know that this book fell flat for a lot of people so I went into it with lowered expectations, yet I still feel kind of shocked at how this book played out. Not in a plot-twist way, but in a, 'How was this the plot we landed on?' kind of way. Somehow, despite the fact much more happened in this book than book one, it was incredibly boring and repetitive.

Now, while I'm complaining about this, I will say that I thought the ending of the book was better than the beginning. The very, very end felt rushed and kind of cheap but the events leading up to it felt more like what I had liked about book one.

Overall, I don't have much else to say about this other than the fact I'm disappointed and wish I would have been pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed this even more than book 1, but alas. I will be carrying on with the series as I'm curious to see how the trilogy ends and I do genuinely hope it's an improvement on this installment.