Lesbehonest, this one is so much just The Palace Job with a new cover. For goodness sakes, our ragtag gang of intrepid adventurers is going after the exact same magical McGuffin. But I’m going to let him get away with it because the romp is just so much gosh darned fun.
I do struggle a bit with remembering where the previous book ends and this one begins but that’s okay. We’re back with Loch and co and war can only be avoided if she can steal back the very object they used to buy freedom and victory last time. In this one, though, we do actually get to leave the Republic and have a fantastic caper that tracks to the Empire, the Dwarflands, and at least into their airspace of the Elflands. And we meet a whole fun cast of characters along the way, and yeah, I mostly like them!
If you loved our merry band of adventurers last time, you’ll love them again this time. If you like quick thinking and multi-layered shenanigans, you’re back on board for round 2. The books aren’t out there to win prizes, they’re out there to have fun and to make you smile and they more than succeed in that goal. They’re a little bit cotton candy but there are also moments of genuine (mostly) human sweetness that’ll stick with you. You care about these guys because they care about each other. It’s like if Michael Schur wrote a fantasy heist series. Oh, maybe he can adapt this for his next project …