My official rating is 3.5 rounded down to a 3 on GR. Something was missing from this sequel and I'm struggling to pinpoint what it is but I'll try my best.

The romantic subplot took over a bit too much for me personaly. The main strength of the first novel, for me, was the found family aspect of it, but in this one the romance overshadowed it. It felt over the top and reminiscent of a romantasy style. And to be clear, I don't have any problems with romanatsy(it's my 3rd most read genre) I'm just not sure this series set up those expectations which is why it felt so distracting. I understand the author wanted to convey pining but it felt more like lust tbh.

And since the main relationship was missing for me, I wanted the plot to be stronger than it was. The whole first 70% felt like setup and introducing a new character at 50% felt a bit odd.

I wanted Desh to have more scenes with Bex on page. While it was fun finding out stuff about him through his interaction with other characters, mainly with Lys, I really wish we'd seen more from him since he gave such a different layer to Bex's life and the weight it puts on people around her.

Also, there was an awful lot of monologing during fight sequences I could have done without. It felt like it cheapened some high-intensity moments trying to insert levity or cute scenes. I wish the plot slowed down a bit to give more room for those character moments to shine without disrupting the high-stakes situations the characters were in.

All that aside, I still care about these characters and I really like where they ended up. I'm excited to see what shenanigans they get up to in the next book.