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Okay so I am giving this book 3.75 stars. Now don't hate me if you thought this book was wonderful! I thought it was pretty close. I just think my overall excitement throughout reading this book was too up and down to give this book 4 or 5 stars.
Here are my thoughts: This review will contain no spoilers!
Summary:
This sequel picks up basically where the first book left off except that Cordell has already started looking through winter's mines. When the Winterian's finally find something, Meira and Theron find themselves at odds with their visions for the future. They end up having to go out to the different kingdoms on a sort of quest and while Meira and Theron leave, Mather and half of the other Winterians known from book one are left in Winter. Because of this we get to see two points of views: Meira and Mather.
This book is a bit slower than the first, but still pretty enjoyable. There's a lot of politics, character development, relationship development, world building, and lastly (and most definitely needed), a KILLER ENDING and PLOT TWIST. So even though I didn’t like this book as much as I like the first book, I’m still very excited for the third installment because the ending gave me life again. I think that one will definitely have more action and heart ache than this one.
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrators for this book, Kate Rudd and Nick Podehl, are so good at doing the different voices for the characters!
Plot:
I thought the plot of this story was well thought out. It was like one of those stories where every few chapters you pick up puzzle pieces that you keep putting together till you see the full picture at the end. Then even when you see the full picture, you find out that even more puzzle pieces can be added to the edges, but you won't get those till the next book so you're stuck with all these new questions. I don't know if that made any sense, but that's how this book felt to me.
So we get to see some new kingdoms in this book. We've seen Cordell, Spring, and Winter. In this book we get to explore Summer, Yakim, and Ventralli. If there is one thing wonderful about the writing that I need to comment on, its the world building. Sara Raasch does an amazing job creating a certain ambiance and environment for each kingdom. You feel like you're really there in Meira's place finding out how the ruler's values affect how they operate within their respective kingdoms. [To make a comparison, it's like the factions from the Divergent series. How one faction values a certain attribute decides how the place is run and will appear to other people.] So each place you visit is extremely distinct from all the others.
Back in Winter, we get to see what Mather is up to and we get to meet even more Winterians. I can't say more about Mather without possibly giving away spoilers, but let's just say his chapters didn't really interest me much until the end of the book and then that was really only one chapter in total.
Even though I liked the puzzle-type plot of this book, I still do not think I enjoyed much of the first half or 3/4 maybe. We did spend most of the time in Meira's POV and there were parts spent in each kingdom that were really really good and then parts that I was like.. Maybe I can just put this down and make a sandwich because I felt my mind not being grasped by the story anymore. It's because of this reason that I just feel wrong giving this book 4 stars. Compared to book one, which had a lot of action and sarcasm and cleverness, book two was more focused on politics and describing the kingdoms and the people in the kingdoms.
What made me like this book more was the ending. Oh GOODNESS was the ending so wonderful. The last hundred pages or so had me immersed until I finished. Warning: MAJOR PLOT TWIST & CLIFF HANGER at the end, unless you're much better than me at guessing things.
Characters:
There were a good amount of new people we get in this book. Most of them were met with Mather, the Children of the Thaw. They were all strong-willed and smart. Kinda like Mather, but more inexperienced in battle and way more blunt.
Who I really liked meeting in this book was Ceridwen. She is something like a mix between a desert sand storm and blazing fire. Her personality, though at first I thought her was a b*tch, was a highlight for me in this book. Through her you find drive, purpose, passion, hurt, loyalty, and love. Her friendship with Meira was one I enjoyed getting to read about through the story. Those were some of the parts I mentioned that I enjoyed.
The royalty we meet.. Well.. Just meet them in the book and you'll see how much I dislike almost all of them (not Ceridwen obviously). Guess you can't help but despise the horrible personalities of some people in books. I know they're meant to be repulsive because its part of the plot, but goodness I just wanna jump in the book and slap people sometimes.
One last thing. I shipped Meira and Theron in book one. Now, I definitely do NOT at all. At the moment I don't completely hate Theron, but stuff happens and now I either was Meira to be alone in the end or with Mather. Meira is a strong, independent, fiery, loving, caring, clever queen and does not need a man to make her whole. Should she happen to end up with Mather though.. I would not mind because they had something wonderful in the first book and if it develops more in the last book, it could be an amazing relationship.