This is an amazing book! I picked it up & I couldn’t put it down! Ciara did an amazing job with telling the story & her character development! 10/10 would read again!

I was supposed to have this done ...oh, over a month ago? But better late than never I guess. So this was definitely better than the first one, but I still couldn't really get into it until about halfway through. I thought the plot was much more interesting this time around. I actually cared about the secrets they were trying to uncover and I think the pacing was better overall. I liked how the villain was revealed about halfway through because in the first book it wasn't until almost the very end kind of as an afterthought, but this time it was front and center the whole time.

But still for some reason these books just seem so much longer than they actually are. I mean 350 pages is really only slightly longer than the books I usually read but some reason these just FEEL long and I don't really know why. I think because a lot of the time is devoted to the romance and love triangles, which is just not what I'm looking for at all. This was one was much better in that regard too. I was hoping that since Lyram and Ellaeva slept together in the first book they would be less angsty in this one and thankfully they were. I mean they were still a BIT angsty, but they had mostly made up their minds so it wasn't an entire book of 'will they won't they' again.

Also while we are introduced to another new love triangle in this book [why], it isn't as prominent as the stuff with Leinahre in book one. Or at least it's not very prominent until the very end, where I just wanted to bury my head in my hands and scream again. Basically there were points of this book that I enjoyed enough to give it 3 stars instead of 2 and I was hoping it meant the whole series would be looking up but after the ending I just KNOW there is going to be so much relationship drama in the next book so I think I'm done with this series. If you like a lot of doomed romance and love triangles and relationship drama in your fantasy then you will probably like this, but it's just too much for me.

This has been a very intense story if I do say so, Ellaeva had one magnitude of a task being the battle priestess of death, justice, and truth, what is a girl to do when she finds the one she loves and he is forbidden as is the law. The book is packed filled with action, adventure and a bit on the morbid side but exciting and interesting all the same. Lyram was in turmoil wanting his true love, but she was forbidden to him, but he couldn't help it his feelings run deep. Even after the betrayal and deceit of his prince, he burned to exact revenge but he was bounded by the oath of allegiance he took, fear for the price he would have to pay if he took measures into his own hands. Their love was forged in a war that was based on deceit, hatred, anger and a lot of other complex situations all destined for the path of disaster. This book was excellently written with a gripping and riveting story line.