Wow, what happened? I should probably say up front that I genuinely do not know how much of my negative experience reading this book was me, and how much was the book. I really liked the first book in this duology, but within about five pages of this one, I had completely turned on it. I really, really did not care what was happening, and trying to read it after that feeling appeared felt like I was torturing myself. FYI I did end up speed reading the middle of this, and then normally reading the last fifty pages or so, so it’s very possible that I missed something. But I just couldn’t do it, man. (The ending of the book convinced me I was right in my approach because wow did I hate that ending.)
So anyway, spoilers for the first book below; definitely don’t read this book without reading the first. It would be a pointless and confusing endeavor. (It felt like that anyway for me, ouch.)
So this book picks up exactly where the last one left off, with one of the MCs (forgot name) having made a deal with an overly powered demon thing and the other (also name forgotten) having kept hers in check. Their romance is immediately supposed to feel tragic here since he made his bad decision and she made her good one, but I was just annoyed. Also, I was annoyed at the author for destroying the abbey or the school or whatever it was at the end of last book. It just went over the edge of suspenseful into This Is Too Much for me. And I could tell the book wasn’t going to explore any of the things I wanted it to, in favor of the things that I liked least in the first book. And I was right.
Spoilers for this book below.
SPOILERS And then the characters somehow manage to repel a colonizer invasion in the short span of like a hundred pages, the dude MC dies, and the lady MC gets pregnant and there is an epilogue where the kid (who is supposed to be cute I guess) and the lady get all sentimental about the dead dad and how he saved all of China whatever this country is called END SPOILERS.
I’m really kind of flabbergasted at my reaction here. I don’t know how to explain it. I think if you liked the first book and where it went at the end you will like this one, too, but I don’t even know at this point. Don’t trust me. I’ve DNFed like ten or eleven books so far this year and it’s only February 1st.
[2.5 stars]
