Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to the publisher Sourcebooks and the author Kalyn Josephson for sending me an ARC copy of this book. I am so happy that I received an ARC of this book!

Originally this review was meant to be for a book tour that was cancelled, and the tour company has now been shut down. I was actually meant to post this yesterday, but I accidentally forgot to schedule this post. But oh well. Better late than never!

Okay, okay, so this book was really good. I loved reading the first book, The Storm Crow, and I actually read it in one day. I didn’t read this book in one day like I did the first. I did struggle a bit getting back into this world and trying to reconnect with the story and remember some of the characters. There were a handful of characters that I had completely forgotten so when they were reintroduced in this book I was a bit confused as to who they were.

I think that is one thing that I felt was a bit lacking in this book; it didn’t explain things or reintroduce parts of the story/characters/things going on as well as it could have. I found it a bit lacking in that regards. For example, there’s a cat called Aroch that is mentioned several times. But only by name. And I couldn’t remember what animal it was at all from the first book. It wasn’t until I was over 100 pages in that it actually stated that it was a cat. Up until then I couldn’t picture what was on character’s shoulders because I didn’t have a clear image of the animal in my head.

Also, there were some side characters that were clearly important to the story that had been in the first book that were in this book that I honestly couldn’t remember at all. So I was confused, wondering who they were and why they were important to the story at all.

Now onto the more fun parts about this book…

There was more about the crow’s magic in this book and the struggle to try to train a crow that is the last one left. With many former crow riders having retired and are now spread out across the country of Rhodaire. Plus Thia and her allies are having to try to stay as hidden as possible as their enemies are hunting them down.

The magic and flight training that Thia put Res through I thought was pretty well thought out. It expanded on the small bits of magic that they were able to practice when Res was hatched and hiding him. At times I did feel it was a bit convenient how quickly they were able to find retired riders in towns/cities on their way to Trendall, to discuss allying and going to war against Illucia, to help train Res.

I found that Ericen grew on me more in this book than in the first. When he reappeared in this book I was a bit surprised to see him again so soon! I knew that he’d appear again but I thought it would be a bit further in, but it was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t trust him when he came back into the story and but then he did something (I can’t say what because of spoilers!) and I started trusting and believing that he wanted to be better. I liked that Thia saw that pretty quickly too, although pretty much no one else did until after halfway through the book.

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Thia I really loved her character. I loved her in the first book and I loved her in this one. She had her moments when I wanted to shake some sense into her. She can be a bit impulsive, but she is a teenager which I did have to remind myself at times when she jumped into situations etc.

The book is in first person, so there is a lot of Thia’s thoughts and feelings and how she sees the world. I really liked seeing how she dealt with her mental health. In the first book she really struggled with depression and grief, it felt very raw and realistic. It definitely resonated with some of the things I’ve gone through. Like not wanting to do anything, struggling to even get out of bed, struggling to see or talk to friends or family because of how tough it can be. There were moments when she fell back into those pits but she was able to bring herself out of it and accepts help more easily and openly than in the first book.

page 81 (of ARC copy)

Thia had a lot of character growth in this book. She was already a pretty strong character by the end of the first book, but she grew even more. Thia ended up being a confident leader that had learnt how to listen to others and lean on them when needed, while also being able to voice her thoughts and be a good leader.

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Res I also really loved. He’s cute, a bit dramatic, adorable, a glutton for both food and attention. I love this over grown chicken!

There’s a lot riding on him and Thia being able to control and train his magic. To secure the alliance, to defeat Illucia, and restore the crows and magic to Rhodaire. So you know not easy stuff. Especially when you’re only a couple of months old at the most. One thing that I really liked about Res was that he struggled with self-doubt and fear of losing Thia and losing control of his magic.

Caylus… oh this sweet, sweet man. Too gentle for this world, with a head full of science and love for others. I loved him in The Storm Crow and I loved him in this book too. I just wish that there had been more of him. He was a pretty central character in the first book but in this one he took a step back. It made sense that he wasn’t but I still missed him. He didn’t want to fight, having been traumatised by events in his past, so it made sense that he wasn’t at the forefront of a plot that was gearing towards a fight/war.

Even though he wasn’t in this book as much though he still had an important part to play with his inventions and support and friendship with the other characters. Especially his friendship with Thia.

I’m not going to talk about every character in this book, because if I did this would probably be a very, very long post. So I’m just going to talk about one last character that was very important to the story: Queen Razel. I loved seeing how vicious, controlling and warmongering in the first book and I loved seeing it in this one as well. But I also liked seeing that she was beginning to lose control and stopped caring about anything but revenge in this book. I thought that she was a great antagonist, a horrifying queen and mother though.

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The world building for this book I thought was really good. New places were introduced in this book and I felt like the author did really well describing them and making them feel real. Also, I love that there are a lot of different cultures and ways of life in this world. Each nation is so very different and it is even more clear in this book just how different they all are.

Also, I found it so handy that there was a list at the back of the book (in this ARC copy) with the different nations with their leader, religion, saints, etc. Plus there was also a list of the different types of crows and their magic. They were both really handy to have in this book.

I did find at times that the pacing seemed very fast, events happened very quickly and there wasn’t much down time in between. I like fast paced books but at times I would have liked there to have been a pause for me to take some things in. It make sense for the action scenes for there not to be breaks in pace for a respite or for the reader to pause. But I did feel at times that there needed to be pauses when there wasn’t.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I did struggle a bit trying to remember some of the characters and why they were important. But the rest of the story really made up for it. I really liked the characters, there were a few that I didn’t like, and I felt like the progression of the story felt pretty natural and made sense.

I would say that if you enjoyed series like Avatar: the Last Airbender, books like Spin the Dawn, Circle of Shadows, Wicked Saints and A Curse So Dark and Lonely then you’ll probably enjoy this duology too!