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Mary E. Pearson does not let you down! 5 STARS! No second book slump. Just a TON of amazingness! I was swooped into the story again and couldn't put it down. All the characters I loved back again with more to share. Kaden, Rafe, Lia herself, Griz, Rafe's posse, and new characters all so easy to love and ahhhh I can't even. I loved this book.
Summary:
So we are in Venda. Lia and Rafe are prisoners for the Komizar. They know Lia is the princess of Morrghan, but they believe that Rafe is the emissary of the Prince of Dalbreck, not the actual Prince himself. Lia does know and they keep it a tight secret. Basically, Rafe has his people that he crossed the Cam Lanteux with trying to break him and Lia out of Venda. So it’s a huge waiting game. Waiting for Rafe’s posse to show up. Waiting to see how long Lia and Rafe survive without being caught. There’s also a lot of learning about Venda as a city. Learning about the people in Venda and the lifestyle and the political system. Also, Lia discovers a lot while in the Sanctum, about herself and her surroundings and now that she’s no longer in the bliss of ignorance she has to make some hard decisions and try to grow into being the political head she needs to be. Region and politics were interwoven really well into the story. The way their religion was explained was not infodumpy at all. It was a new experience unlike common religions today. And you get more of the history in this book too. The small snippets of religious texts are starting to become more relevant and almost foreshadow whats to come in the book.
NON-SPOILERY REVIEW! Plot: The plot was a 5/5 for me. I felt like so much information was being given to you throughout the book and it was done in a mysterious way so that you had to go along with Lia and figure out what's happening a little bit at a time. Something new was revealed every so often that you had to keep reading and once you're at the end you finally get your full picture and it's so wonderful! The ending was a wait so worth it. After much anxiety over making sure Lia and Rafe didn't get killed, the final battle was one for the books. The last three pages though are SUCH A CLIFFHANGER. I NEED BOOK THREE!
Characters:
Lia - she grows so much. All the characters do. But her special gift grows with her and you start to understand what she's capable of doing. She has a resolve like no other. She's determined. She's kindhearted. She's what I would consider a great future queen. I also really like how she is dealing with the love triangle in the story. She knows what she wants and doesn’t sway. Lia also has a way of caring a lot for the smaller characters like Aster and even Calantha. She just has a way of making people like her no matter how cold.
Rafe & his friends - him and his comrades are so great. They are honest with each other, loyal to each other and with each interaction , though they don’t come till later in the book, you get to see more of Rafe’s personality and his friends personalities. So like I said before, you get more details about characters in this book. I also like how each of them found something about Lia to like as they each encountered her. They found her worth saving and that’s important.
Kaden - much is revealed about Kaden's past. Not everything, but a lot and sometimes you question who he's more devoted to. Lia or Komizar? Of course, I’m always rooting for Lia because his tends to sway towards his love for her more than his bond with the Komizar.
Komizar - exactly how I imagined. E. X. A. C. T. L. Y. He is so intuitive and calculative. He misses nothing. He's a nasty brute, but the perfect villain for this story. So conniving and power hungry. His craving for power is portrayed like an absolute need and you can see how corrupted he is. Great villain.
Overall - 839272949282 stars. I loved this journey. I can't even come up with adjectives other than perfect and wonderful and amazing and well perfect haha. This is exactly how I wanted this book to be and more. I was blown away. Neeeeed the third!