Look, I may feel differently upon re-read, but this author cannot write romance to save his life. Both of these books so far have been made worse by his efforts in that department. His instincts are all wrong. In the first book, it was an underdeveloped and ill-advised “romance” between our narrator, Helena, the apprentice of famed Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt, and some village rube who had zero personality. Here, it’s between Helena and Vonvalt himself and just UGH. NO. WHY.
Luckily the romance never gets off the ground, but the fact that it was even an issue tells me this dude doesn’t super get women. (Of course YMMV but I so rarely have an issue with romance included as a secondary or tertiary plot in any book I read that when it doesn’t work, I know something is wrong.) The relationship between Helena and Vonvalt can be emotional and intense and complicated without romance. That is not the only thing that motivates women!
Okay, now that I have that out of my system (for now), the rest of the book and the world and the characters, and the ongoing plotline continues to be excellent. I like that we’re getting to know this Empire as it falls apart, and through the lens of someone who works in a field that props up said Empire, and is itself beginning to crumble. The bad guys in here are scary, and now there are even scarier ones introduced. I knew I was really in it when a certain character died and I was genuinely saddened. I didn’t think I was that into it, but I experienced a tiny bit of emotional devastation.
I’ve already got the third (and final) book of the series pre-ordered, and I’m really hoping the author will now stop doing dirty to his main character/narrator, and let her just be complicated without trying to make her ooey-gooey and shoehorn in romance where it doesn’t belong, and when he doesn’t have the skills to make it plausible or enjoyable to read about. Damn, I guess it wasn’t out of my system after all.