I really loved the first 50% of this book and thought it was an excellent continuation of the first, but while the ending wrapped up the political intrigue and action, I felt like there was a lot left unresolved with the characters and their relationships. So much of what I loved about the first book was how slowly things developed between Lara and the rest of the main cast. In this book we get introduced to Lara’s sisters (WHO I LOVED) and there is A LOT to be done as far as Lara redeeming herself to those she has betrayed. One of the main conflicts of this book is Aren’s journey to reconcile his feelings for Lara and how his people will respond to him forgiving a traitor. That is a really interesting conflict and I wanted to see some more long-lasting resolution with that. Honestly I think we just needed a couple chapters set a few months or a year after the action was resolved to get a more satisfying conclusion to both Lara’s sisters, Lara and Aren’s relationship, and also Lara’s relationship to the people from both of the kingdoms she loves.

I did really like the majority of this book and I loved these characters, I just think the focus on resolving all of the different bigger moving parts of the war and the different kingdoms overshadowed the character work that needed to be done to make everything more impactful.