I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

*I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

The ending still has me going "What the hell..." but I think I can pull together some other feelings towards this book.

Many of my feelings are the same the first book. I like the girls v.s. monsters theme, although this book had a lot less fighting and a lot more whining which I'll get to. I was hoping that Maia would have gotten more control over her power -- maybe not Belle level, but couldn't she come close?
I still like the theme of trying to figure out the past in order to protect the future and in this book they really dive into that... a bit, I did wish there had been more, but what we got is pretty good.

Now, the first book I gave 5 stars and this one only 3... most of this is because of the romance and the secrets. Maia is all about the Effigies being a team, working together, maybe being friends, yet she hides practically everything she knows from them --including the stuff about Rhys. She also can't decide how she feels about him, even though it is obvious, which is so aggravating. I don't want to spoil the first book too much, so I won't go into it, but in this book Maia kept whining and not DOING. I wish she had trusted Lake since they are close or even Chae Rin about what to do and told them everything about Natalya's memories.

So because of all the stuff she did wrong, we have an over-dramatic ending. Why? because there is no way-- *sigh* Anyhow, I want more fighting and more understanding, but none of that really happened until the end. I felt I could have skipped half the book and still understood most of it. Well, except for the new type of bad guy but I still don't see their importance *shrugs*

The characters aren't flushing out either since we don't learn more about them. Sometimes the other effigies seemed like placeholders which was weird. Also, Brendan (?) didn't act his age all the time which I found odd, and I'm sorry a grown ass man checking out a teen (I think she's a teen anyhow) is just plain wrong. Yes, someone kinda stepped in, but it just was a creepy moment not addressed.

So, will I read the next book? I might. I am actually interested in the story. I want to know why the effigies exist and if the monsters will ever go away. I don't give two peanuts about the romance which seems underdeveloped and pointless, but I like Saul and want to know more about Nick and Alice.

Siege of Shadows is the second installment in author Sarah Raughley's The Effigies series. 16-year old Maia Finley has taken her place as the fire Effigy alongside Lake, Chae Rin, and Belle, who has been an Effigy for 6 years. Each of the Effigies have the power of different elements like fire, earth, water, and air. Each one of the Effigies can also summon weaponry unique to each of their elements. There are four Effigies at any time. When one dies, one replaces them almost immediately. For Maia, her time came after an encounter with the villain, Saul, in NYC.

Outside of her rugged training alongside her teammates, Maia is also expected to be a public figure in the fight to re-capture Saul, the man who has managed to harness the power of the phantoms and their destructive nature. That means that she and the others are expected at different events, parties, and yes, even an awards show in Toronto. But, things aren't at all normal these days. 2 months ago, the Effigies stopped Saul, but he escaped with some inside help from those they work with. They also have to scurry round from place to place to discover the origins of the phantoms, as well as their own beginnings since Maia is apparently the center of Saul's new world order.

Right out of the gate, Raughley sends her Effigies into a mystery that just can't be explained. Maia and her team are out to capture Saul who has somehow managed to avoid being detected for two months. But, instead discover a mysterious boy who tells Maia that there are other Effigies she has no knowledge of, it sets up a test of wills, skills, shocking revelations, and a broken trust between not between the Effigies & the Sect, but the council who oversees the Sect, and her own teammates, especially Belle, who hasn't been the same since the loss of Natalya who Maia replaced. Belle believes that Maia knows who killed her friend and mentor and is like a bulldog refusing to let things go until she gets an answer. 

Siege of Shadows does a lot of traveling from place to place including Prague, Madrid, & Toronto. There is a lot of curious situations, betrayal, revelations, and a shocking ending. I will say that it would be best for you to read the first book in the series before jumping into this story. I am just going to come out and state that this book nearly ended me. The author takes a step into the strange and unusual with one of her characters, no spoilers, and I am really shocked that she ended the book in this fashion. I am one who isn't a fan of killing off characters for the sake of entertainment purposes. It makes zero sense to do so in the middle of a series like this. Now, the author has to explain why she did what she did and then come up with a way to fix the situation since the series would have to be completely changed if she doesn't.

Siege of Shadows by Sarah Raughley is the second book in the Effigies series. A young adult science fiction fantasy series readers were introduced in the first book to high school student Maia Finley who knew that one of her idols must have died because Maia had been chosen to take her place as the new Fire Effigy. There were always four Effigies at any given time and when one died another young girl is chosen by fate to inherit the magical abilities of one of the four elements.

When the city of New York came under attack from phantoms with the protection system down Maia found herself tossed into the middle of battle without a clue what to do. Luckily Belle, another Effigy showed up and saved the day but it wasn’t long until Maia’s secret was out and she was pulled into battle with the other girls and the secret government program, the Sect that is in charge of the Effigies.

Now in Siege of Shadows the story of Maia, Belle, Lake and Chae Rin, the four young Effigies continues a couple of months after it left off in the first book. The girls know they need to band together to defeat their enemies and have been training and studying all the while trying to learn the secret behind Saul and his attacks. The girls struggle with the press and the public and balancing their duties to protect with those that think the Sect and Effigies are part of the problem.

Ok, when finishing Siege of Shadows I know that I need to write a review for this one but it was one of those moments of wow, WTH did I just read???? After picking my jaw back up off the floor and dusting it off I took a bit of time to gather my thoughts on this story and decided that this second book deserved nothing less than 5 stars for that shocking ending alone.

Now, don’t get me wrong I did have my moments of doubt with this second book of the Effigies series. It seemed like it was going to fall into that middle book syndrome that I often comment on where it just lacks the action from the first and is only setting up the next. But thankfully that feeling went away when the story picked up the action and excitement that I’d come to expect from this series.

This book does a lot of world/story building and letting the readers get closer to the four Effigies that the story revolved around and I thought it was going to really slow down the pace but then there were moments of shock and awe as the story went on. Then on top of it all there was an explosive end to this book that I found that I have no clue in the world where the story could continue onward from here. Great job surprising me with this one and I’ll definitely be one of the first in line next year for book three. I’d even begun to think that wow I’d love to see a movie version of this tale so would I recommend it? Heck yes!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is Raughley’s follow up to Fate of Flames so if you enjoyed that then your anxious waiting to find out the Fate of her intrepid characters will feel like it had been well worth it.

You definitely need to make sure you have already read the first because all the world building, rules, foundation and so forth is all encased there and you won’t have the full picture otherwise. Especially as the first chapter drops you right in the thick of things. She does provide a small kind of wrap up to help you remember how the characters found themselves in their current predicament but it’s not enough to help a novice reader become invested.

I love how even in the most serious of situations she manages to evoke humor from her characters. Told from Maia’s point of view you get a real sense for the edginess and fear that they live with on a daily basis. The familial camaraderie between the Effigies is still as poignant even with danger and secrets closing in ready to rip them apart.

The way she describes her scenes you feel like you are actually there whether it’s in the desert or walking the streets of Canada to attend an awards ceremony. I just love Maia’s personality whether she’s trying to be stronger than she feels or making fun of “self-absorbed celebrities” her humanity comes shining through despite the super-hero position she holds in this world.

Raughley has this way of describing scenes with such vivid emotion that when you come upon something horrific like a fictional character getting murdered there’s this part of you that wants to close your eyes and turn your head as if you could look away from the horror unfolding only to remind yourself this is a book and not happening before you visually. Just as she can dish out the horror one minute the next you’ll find her describing nightfall with such beautiful prose it hardly seems possible to have all come from the same writer’s hand.

I have to admit at times this was hard to read because of what is going on in the world with the States ripping itself apart in a modern day civil war, you don’t know who to trust not even within your own government and Raughley plays these themes to the hilt. Supernatural elements aside it’s easy to see how a society could become this fearful, this ready to act without question, to turn one friend against another, even murder your own family if you were told they were a violently dangerous threat to society.

That ending!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath and tears were sliding down my face until I couldn’t see the pages anymore.