Summary:
Find the heir, win the crown.
The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.
Win the crown, save the kingdom.
Rumored to be the heir, Grey has been on the run since he destroyed Lilith. He has no desire to challenge Rhen–until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother’s violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?
The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.
Thoughts:
This book took me forever to read and I’m not sure if it was the book or me. I’m leaning towards it being me, but I also could have been thrown off by it following two different main characters from the first book (even though I did like the POV characters in this one!).
So, in this sequel we’re following Grey and Lia Mara, two characters with a lot of baggage. Grey has all this ‘lost heir’ stuff going on which has caused him to abandon Prince Rhen for Rhen’s own good (unbeknownst to Rhen) and Lia Mara is kind of a mess. She’s the eldest daughter of Karis Luran but is treated like an afterthought while all attention and focus is given to her younger sister, expected to carry on their mother’s legacy. Lia Mara lacks confidence in herself and maybe Grey also lacks confidence, which is why he ran away instead of thinking Rhen would see reason after hearing Grey’s new truth about his birth. Either way, they’re both interesting characters with tons of room for character growth at the start of the book.
As far as plot, it takes a little while for this one to get going because honestly there’s just not a lot happening at first. There is a lot of Grey in the kingdom, trying to blend in and seeing how crappy things are. And then you have Lia Mara, traveling as part of her mother and sister’s entourage to Emberfall to propose an alliance between their two nations. The traveling seemed to last a while. Or maybe it just felt that way since it was taking me a really long time to get through the start of this book. First there’s traveling in and around the kingdom, to Emberfall, then back to Lia Mara’s country (I forgot the name whoops). But really the main plot is that Emberfall is on the brink of civil war, Lia Mara’s country is threatening to invade if they can’t come to an agreement regarding port access, and Grey is running away from his responsibilities even though he’s convinced himself it’s to save Rhen. Eventually things come to a head and even though things were a little predictable, I appreciated the hell out of the character arcs of our two POV characters.
I have to give it to Kemmerer though. It takes guts to take a character that people loved from book one and make them one of the villains in book two. Rhen takes a HUGE turn in this one. I think, for the most part, it’s explained well. At one point Noah remarks that he thinks Rhen has PTSD because of the curse, but also because of what he did while under the curse. Of course not all of that is going to be magically cured just because they broke the curse and he fell in love with Harper. So when he’s faced with this new threat and everything starts falling apart, he starts to regress. In a major way. He’s been betrayed before and he feels like he’s being betrayed again. The explanation is just that, an explanation, it’s not an excuse. Quite frankly I’m surprised that Harper chose to stick by Rhen during all of this and maybe that’s one thing I do have a bit of an issue with. The other thing is the ending. If Rhen’s trauma was due to what he went through while under the curse from Lilith then….what the hell, book? Either way, he’s a mess in this book and he does some really deplorable things here. Will he be able to be redeemed in book three? Do we even want him to? That remains the question.
As far as sequels go, I can see why folks are so divided on this one. I actually wound up liking it quite a bit. Maybe not as much as book one, but I really loved spending time with Grey and Lia Mara because they’re both such good people who want to do the right thing and just need to find the courage to do so. I love that they grew to be that strength for each other, able to lift one another up and encourage each other. I think that is what made the book work for me, more than anything else. 3.5/5 stars.
Way Too Fantasy 
What you wrote about the MC of the first book turning bad was interesting! I don’t know if I would start this series, to be honest, but it seems quite promising!
I LOVED the first book, a lot more than I thought I would. I liked what she did here even though I saw a lot of fans were mad, lol. I definitely still like the first book better though. 🙂
I’ve heard so many good things about the first book, but I haven’t found time for it, unfortunately. I’m glad you sort of enjoyed this! Second books are tough, especially when readers rave over the first book.
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it’s hard for a sequel to live up to the first one. Thanks!
I loved the first book, and I have to admit that I didn’t love this one, but I still enjoyed it (I mean … how can you not enjoy a Kemmerer book, right?!). As you said, the change in Rhen sort of maybe made sense, but also annoyed me, and Harper’s role *definitely* annoyed me, since I loved her so much in the first one! I really didn’t like Lia Mara, though, so I think that’s why I liked this one less? But I know a lot of people did, and I’m glad you took to her! I’m so looking forward to book three after the way this one ends. 😮
Yeah, Harper just wasn’t present much in this one at all. It’s an odd sequel in that it focuses on different characters and maybe I’m used to this because it’s common in romance series where it’s a lot less common in fantasy. If you didn’t like Lia Mara that probably does have a lot to do with you not liking this one as she was such a large part of the book. I’m really curious how she’s going to do book three–maybe it will have chapters from all four characters!
Lovely review! I still haven’t read the first book so I skimmed your review, but it made me so excited to pick it up💜
Thank you, Kaya! Book one was a favorite of mine. 🙂
I definitely want to check it out now! XD
Hope you enjoy!
Great review! Despite the mixed thoughts on this one I am still dying to read it… of course once I can get a copy at the library after quarantine lol! Happy reading 🙂
I really hope you enjoy it when you can get a hold of a copy. I’m honestly REALLY looking forward to how she ends the series after reading this one. Thanks!
I still haven’t read the first book. It’s a shame that this wasn’t quite as good but you still enjoyed it.
Lynn 😀
The first one I didn’t expect to love as much as I did! And while this one wasn’t quite as good I’m definitely looking forward to the finale. 🙂
OK I’m definitely curious now. I had been so eager for this book to arrive since finishing book one and now that it’s here it’s just sitting on my shelf (for who knows how long too)! 😅 I’ve heard SO MANY mixed reviews about this… I liked Rhen in book one but I have to admit that I liked Grey better so I’m wondering if that’ll impact how I’ll feel about this! Great review 😀
Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of mixed reviews. I like Grey better too! So maybe you’ll end up liking this one more like I did. 🙂