Holy forking shirt balls. What just happened.

I literally just finished, and my brain is still catching up with the chaos of the last few chapters.

AND APPARENTLY WE’RE NOT DONE YET!!! I was wondering if it’d be resolved, and yeah, there’s more to go. Outside of the TBC, there’s too much up in the air.

This delivered one of the best truly enemies to lovers but still absolutely fucking enemies (literally and figuratively lol) that I’ve read. I hated myself for loving it as much as I did haha. 

First of all, this book — like the author has said on their IG — is very different from the first book. It’s got a very different done and purpose than IW. 

At times, I felt like this book would never end. It dragged a bit at times during the “rebuilding” stages. This book is unique in that I think we really get to see what happens after the power at the top has been toppled —  how difficult it is to truly build something new and without the terrible parts of the old regime, without becoming a tyrant power reborn. It was also a bit hard to stomach at times, especially with the impending reelection of Ye Olde Rotten Cheeto Corpse and knowing how white men in power are doing everything they can to take rights from women, POC, immigrants, LGBTQ+, etc. 

The way Zetian and Qin Zheng were literally like fire and ice — so toxic, so hateful, so delicious. If you’re looking for a book with a distinct good guy/bad guy, this is NOT the series for you. While yes, they are both attempting to create a better world for the working class, everyone is morally grey to their bones. Zetian is doing her best, but sometimes bad men still need to be unalived. And sometimes what she wants just doesn’t quite work out. Re: Zeitan and Qin Zheng — I love that as the reader, you’re never quite sure if you should want them together. I got to the point that I kind of did but then (massive massive spoiler!!)

when she stabbed him in the heart and said she did it for HERSELF, the GASP I gasped. Yasss, Empress. Eat his heart. Also, the “cheap slut” and “dirty whore” moment almost took me out.

Anyway. I had no idea there’d be more until the very very end with the TBC. I can’t wait to see what kind of tyrannical chaos Zeitan gets up to next.