3.5 Rigging Stars ⭐️

This is very much the definition of it's not you, it's me.

And as much as that sounds cliche, there isn't really another way to frame how I feel about this without saying that I'm the problem. It's not the book. Renee Dugan quite frankly has some of the best high-quality writing I have ever seen! Her mastery of the craft, the mastery of her writing a story and making it so beautiful and lyrical... It's just pure poetry on a page.

I cannot almost fathom how sophisticated and stunning her general prose is throughout the story. And that is truly one of the main things that kept me captivated in this story. However, I have found that I tend to enjoy a story more when there's a larger focus on character development and relationship development versus plot. I could almost have no progression in a plot if it's just pure character development. This is something that I really adored in Book 1 as we were given very complicated characters and were shown how all their layers were peeled back.

It almost feels like we've gone to an opposite extreme in this book as the book starts where Book 1 ended, we already have “developed” characters and further developing them was almost put to the wayside to focus on the plot. This is why I didn’t enjoy it as much because it was very action-packed. There was exponentially more action and plot progression, I feel, than in comparison to the action in book 1 and not much character development.

We did have surprisingly new dynamics and new POVs added, which did add a unique flavour to the story. I appreciated that we went into the head of Gavannon, but that's where I think it got confusing for me, as motivations muddled a little bit and by the end of the story, I was not sure who the actual villain was anymore.

The King taking the top spot

And it frustrated me as this new villain felt very one-dimensional in his motivations and actions. And whilst this behaviour is explained, I feel I needed more depth to him or more time in his presence to understand him. I have seen how complex and convoluted RD can write characters and to have this character juxtaposed against that didn’t always work for me.

I personally also wanted to see more yearning in Jamyson for Esmae, a pining that they couldn’t be together. I felt like I hardly know who he was as a character except for his love for his brothers and sisters and this connection was more tangible than his love for Esmae.

This is still a highly engaging fantasy story, so if you want a spectacularly written fantasy story, I would highly recommend this. For me, I primarily read fantasy with romance as a big plot and this book didn't see much growth in the romance for the couples involved. I think that is why it didn't grip me as much as it should. As I said, this is a “me” problem and I would still recommend this book!

Especially if you love:
▶ High fantasy
▶ Quest/Journey
▶ A found family
▶ Political Intrigue
▶ Compelling Worldbuilding
▶ The most beautiful writing you have ever seen.