I'm going to be blunt about this, mainly because I really wanted, and still do, for this series to improve more and more.

This book feels poorly edited. It feels rushed. My enjoyment with it is balanced between the "neutral" and the "liked", but I was hoping I could give this close to 4 stars...

Pointing specifics without spoiling anything: there's quite a few inconsistencies in the narrative, in the descriptions and even in character actions (not too much that it destroys the story, but still noticeable if you're paying attention); there's more than a handful of cringe-worthy moments even though those can be easily ignored; I elect not to describe how Violet made me feel when she started - and CONTINUED - blaming herself for everything that goes wrong, whether or not she could have controlled it and I'll just say I disliked it indeed; contrary to popular opinion, I didn't appreciate the "throne scene" since, for me, it felt completely unnecessary, felt like delay to the plot and could have been slotted anywhere else if at all (I'm not really a fan of explicit spice) and on this topic, all the spice scenes were needlessly long as well; some geographical descriptions, albeit very rarely to be honest, didn't quite make sense in a physically realistic perspective.

The plot itself did move nicely with some major twists regardless of how obvious at least a couple of them were. 

I still feel intrigued and immersed by the narrative itself but I must confess Onyx Storm will pretty much decide if I continue with this series.

This book was maybe not as good as the first, but my goodness it’s still really good and definitely worth 5 stars! I am obsessed with this series and can’t wait for the next book!

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️/5 
Holy crap, that ending is insane but I loved it! Not as much as the first book because some of it was a little slow but still amazing. 
Tropes: 
War College 🏫
Enemies(ish)-to-Lovers ❤️
Mind Connection 🧐
Found Family 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒
Dragons 🐉

A fantastic sequel. I went into this concerned about some of the negativity I'd seen regarding Violet and Xaden's relationship, and honestly yeah, I did get a bit sick of the same old 'I don't trust you? You don't trust me!' back and forth, but that only dropped it half a star. Once I accepted that they were just dumbasses, it got more bearable. That being said, part 2 is definitely the star of the show (or maybe that's when I decided to dub them dumbasses). 

The plot and the pacing was fantastic. It was action packed. I guessed several of the twists and it didn't even matter because I still was left reeling at the execution of them, and there were some twists I didn't guess at all. Onyx storm comes out in 6 days and it doesn't feel soon enough. I have thoughts and theories and also a lot of stress.