Following the cliffhanger in the first book, I was excited to see where the story went. Unfortunately I'd say that this book was not as captivating as the first by any means and was a little disappointing.

Plot: +0.5
The book follows the events of the first book. Oraya is grieving the loss of Vincent, her only father figure in her life, after the boy she's falling for, Raihn, killed him at the end of the Kijari. Oraya now had to marry Vincent's killer and watch as Raihn struggles to claim the throne and become the new ruler. However, there are many people who would love to take the throne for themselves.

I definitely didn't enjoy the plot as much as the first book. This book is a bit more political and I personally don't find much interest in politics. Additionally, the overall plot was a quite weak and there's a lot of pointless parts in the book which made it very hard to pick back up sometimes. This book could probably be cut down about 200 pages if you got rid of all the rambling. 

Unlike the first book, I don't think it really had many twists outside of maybe one major one. I'm generally a sucker for plot twists and having my heart ripped out and mind blown so that was a little disappointing. However, the one twist that did happen did catch me slightly off guard, but it definitely wasn't mind-blowing or fully unexpected.

Writing: +0.5
Similarly to the first book, the writing wasn't necessarily bad but if definitely wasn't anything overly amazing. There were a few parts that were a little cringy to read, however I was able to brush over those.

One thing I didn't like was that the writing style wasn't really fluid. What I mean by that is that there are 2 POVs you're meant to be following (Oraya’s and Raihn’s), but you can't really distinguish between the two POVs despite them having different personalities. I feel the whole point of POV’s is to see each characters insight, however it needs to be in their own style that fits their character. It also makes it easier to distinguish who's POV you're reading without checking at the beginning of the chapter which I find sometimes takes me away from the immersion of the story.

Characters: +0.5
This book was a little frustrating to read character wise. I didn't really like Oraya's character much. She did a complete 360 from the first book. That fire and fight she had in the first book completely disappeared. I do understand she's grieving, however, there was a complete lack of anything for majority of the book and I was getting irritated. Her attempts at “fighting back” were pretty pathetic and I was just losing any emotional connection I had with her character.

The one thing I did like about her character though was seeing the internal battle she was having at coming to terms with what happened with Vincent, both when he was alive and when he died. It was slow, but she did learn to cope with it and try to understand Vincent a bit more.

Raihn's character was slightly less irritating, however you don't really see his struggles with gaining the kingdom's rule which I thought was one of the main things we'd see with his POV. It was always stuck on Oraya and just things that weren't relevant. He is still a similar character to the one in the first book, but I don't think we got to love as much with him as we did in the first book. I did love learning about his past throughout the book though, as his past seems to be shrouded in a lot of mystery.

The relationship between the two was complicated. Oraya hating Raihn but also fighting her feelings for him and Raihn wanting to give Oraya space but also wanting to be with her. The fact that they're married only really comes up during the wedding at the beginning and that's about it I think. I found it irritating to read about their relationship. No one took initiative and it was a lot of dancing around the bushes. I was still rooting for them and loved the relationship, but the characters feel so different from the first book that I don't know whether it'll feel the same.

The antagonist in this book is of course Septimus, however you don't really get to see much of him which is quite bizarre considering he's the main bad guy. You don't really get to develop those feelings of hatred you get when you read about an evil character because you never really get to read about him. This actually affects the plot as well and makes the “acts of evil” feel a lot less effective.

World-Building: +0.5
There isn't really much world-building in the book as it heavily relies on the understanding from the first book. However, you do learn about some new areas that we didn't see in the first book. It was brief and just about enough to get through the book. Additionally, it was a little info-dumpy but not to the extent where I would zone out whilst learning about it.

Rating: 3/5
I definitely didn't enjoy this book as much as the first book. I often found myself getting bored and not wanting to pick the book back up. The characters I loved in the first book didn't feel like the same characters here and the antagonist didn't really make much of an appearance despite being an integral part to the part. Despite all this criticism, I did generally enjoy it, but I definitely didn't get too invested into the book. I think the best way to describe my feelings about this book is mehh. 

I had to force myself to write this review because I just didn't feel any passion about this book. It was a disappointing second part and I'm hoping the next book is better.