Never have I anticipated a companion series as much as this duet and been so completely disappointed in the result. 

I was already on the fence with book 1 hoping that book 2 would do some heavy lifting but it just didn’t happen. There is so much focus on the drugs and drug making aspect that the romance became a subplot and was relegated to the background instead of the focus. 

Not to mention how all the numerous side “stories” feel forced: her attire, her interactions with the royal family’s child clearly used to justify breeding trope and pregnancy, her research and the way she constantly endangers herself so the MMC can be upset by it, the constant “well I gotta figure this drug thing out so y’all can get on with killing me”. The plot ends up bloated with everything treated in a very heavy handed way.