In a bid for more power, the Shadow Queen of Haradis, unleashes a malignant force into the world. Her son Brishen, younger prince of the Kai royal house, suddenly finds himself ruler of a kingdom blighted by darkness. His human wife Ildiko must decide if he will give up the man she loves in order to save his throne.
Three kingdoms on the verge of war must unite to save each other, and a one-eyed, reluctant king will raise an army of the dead to challenge an army of the damned.
A tale of alliance and sacrifice. – Goodreads
Gahhhh. I can’t even handle how much I enjoyed this book. I was in a major book slump and this busted me out of it, so I’m thankful for that. I finished this sucker in 48 hours.
I read Radiance last year and loved it — I probably should have read a refresher before jumping into this, but it didn’t take long for me to remember what happened.
First things first — love the love that Brishen and Ildiko have. I’m not a big fan of sap, but gahh. I just can’t. I love what they have. It helps that I was able to watch it blossom in the first book, but seeing it continue in this second installment was awesome. I’ll leave it at that.
This book moved so damn fast. That’s my main gripe. And it was a bit choppy in parts — the cadence was a little off. Some things took forever (IE, banquets) but important, cool things (IE, transforming into a Wraith King) went by in a few pages. It was a little bit jarring and the last quarter of the book felt very rushed, but I guess there is a third installment coming.
It’s difficult to get into much detail with a sequel. The worldbuilding was continued and fantastic, love the character development, loved the multiple points-of-view…pick up a Draven novel if you haven’t yet.
lifebetweenreads.com 