I thought the first book was just "okay" But I didn't care a lot. This book didn't change that and I just gave up. Best of luck to Rosalyn Eves.

Thank you, Penguin Random House, for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"You think because I am a girl, I am weak. Because I speak for those who are given no voice here, my voice should matter less. You are wrong, on both counts." —Anna

Sequels are very unpredictable. You never know if they're gonna hit the mark or miss it completely. I loved Blood Rose Rebellion when I read more than a year ago, so I was eager to dive into this book, believing that it would be even better. Unfortunately, most of my expectations weren't met. To be optimistic about it, at least I enjoyed this book enough to give it more than 3 stars.

For the most part, Lost Crow Conspiracy was a very educational read. Just like the first book, it integrated much history into its fantastical plot. I rarely pick up historical fiction, so reading this book was an opportunity to widen my horizons. I enjoyed how the author retold the Austrian-Hungarian War and its global repercussions. She did it in a way that was unique, refreshing, and comprehensible; it was anything but info-dumpy. I was particularly fascinated by discriminated praetheria because their standpoint in European society was similar to that of the Jews during World War II. I wasn't sure if this allusion was intentional. Nonetheless, I really appreciated it as someone fond of Christian history.

I also enjoyed Anna's character development in this book. Anna continued to be underestimated because of her sex, but she didn't hesitate to address the corruption in her society. Breaking the Binding definitely made her more mature because it pushed her to be a voice for the weak and oppressed. In a world ruled by men, she was one empowered female. Truth be told, the only thing I didn't like about her was her tendency to lie to her loved ones; her refusal to tell anyone about Matyas's "death" resulted in much undue stress. xD

As for Matyas, I was surprised that the author decided to keep him. I didn't expect him to be resurrected. I had already become used to the idea of him being dead, so I didn't care about his story arc. It didn't help that his chapters were less interesting than Anna's. In a way, his chapters felt like...fillers or padding. However, in light of his new powers as a shaman, it was clear that he still had much to contribute to the plot. I guess Anna would have had no allies if he hadn't been there.

This book's main weakness was its pacing. Oh my, the last 100 or so pages were difficult to get through because I almost fell asleep with boredom. It was weird because the climax was supposed to be the most exciting part of the novel. Anna had a price on her head, and her journey through various forests and villages was a drag. There was hardly any interesting confrontation since all she did was run and hide.

Overall, Lost Crow Conspiracy was intriguing and educational. I loved Anna's character development and the book's rich historical content. Still, some parts of the book were utterly boring. I gave the first book a higher rating, so I guess this one suffered from second book syndrome. Hopefully, the third installment will be better. :)

3 stars

Anna Arden, after breaking the Binding, letting lower class citizens have magic and releasing the Praetheria, didn’t know that doing so would break the world.

She thought that the Praetheria were on her side and that peace, equality, and justice would now reign. Yet, this has not happened and the class lines she sought to destruct still exist–especially between her and her beloved, Gabor.

War threatens to sweep the region and Anna learns she can’t solve everything alone. There’s only one other person who might be able to save the country before war breaks out. A man known as the King of Crows.

I wasn’t really a fan of the last novel (I found it to have some issues with introducing the historical context as well as just the magical system being confusing and the characters not having a clear focus; find my review here), but I was hoping that this book would be different.

And although its plot thankfully was not confusing, I just ended up not being into it and generally apathetic to the whole thing. There’s a reason why I titled this “Ca-caw! Ca-caw! Ca–“. It’s because the crow got so bored he fell asleep midair.

(aka I’m the crow)

I didn’t actually fall asleep reading, but like the first book, I felt like nothing really happened. Anna is just a confusing character in general for me–what are her motivations? Sometimes she’s like “Oh I wish the class boundaries would go away why haven’t they gone away yet” and other times she’s like “Tehehe! It’s a prince!” and what she’s fighting for didn’t seem defined enough for what I was looking for.

She has a lot of desires and she never really focuses on one. Sometimes she wants to help this group, other times it’s this group, other times its herself, and although she wasn’t annoying per se, Anna was just kind of confused in general about who she wanted to be.

She tries so hard to fit into society despite how she doesn’t like society and it comes off as very contradictory to me. I know she has that old fashioned view OMG calves–blasphemy! and all sorts of societal things like that, but part of her viewpoint was getting rid of class boundaries and societal standards. It felt a little hypocritical at times.

I wished she would have had a stronger focus on one thing instead of flitting around to the different issues she wanted to address, and I think this is Eves’ way of trying to fit complexity into her character, but it didn’t really work for me.

What made this get a higher rating (3 instead of 2) than the first book was just the simplicity of the plot. I had a much easier time understanding what was going on and wasn’t perplexed by the complicated magical rituals. But, in retrospect, I still don’t really know what happened?

The plot felt a lot like Anna trying to do stuff but ultimately not really achieving anything? Everything just goes downhill for her throughout the novel and it just gets worse and worse until she’s just out of society in general.

I did think there is a lot of potential in the concept of the Praetheria and how they can be used to address social issues and I’m hoping Eves will do a lot with this during book 3.

It was interesting to see how it was almost split half and half between Matayas and Anna, which I was very much not expecting to happen. Matayas ended up spicing things up a bit and although I wouldn’t have necessarily condoned this move, it didn’t end up really bothering me.

The romance wasn’t very present, which was fine by me. I liked Gabor in the last book, he was smart, but if he was in the book, he’d probably also bring love into the picture.

The writing is fine and that was somehow one of this books more redeeming characteristics? I enjoy Eves’ writing style and think if she was writing a different story, I’d enjoy it more. It’s got that kind of soothing quality that’s a nice balance between concise and flowery that helps me read smoothly.

I guess the pacing was okay? It didn’t seem overly long when I was reading it, but adding up what actually happened and how many pages makes this book seems like it was too much.

Overall, I think if you liked the first book, you’ll like this one. But if you didn’t like the first, it’s probably better to just read something else because there’s no “OH MY GOSH WHEN DID THIS SERIES TURN AMAZING?” moment happening in this book. I liked the writing, but the story was just kind of bland in generally and I ended up pretty apathetic to it all.

The links will go live on Sunday, March 11th & will be shared on Twitter.

I featured this title here: http://www.bethfishreads.com/2018/03/8-new-fantasies-to-read-in-march.html

Love to keep up with fantasy series. And getting to read them before my students is a huge bonus!

The Lost Crow Conspiracy by Rosalyn Eves is the second book of the Blood Rose Rebellion series and admittedly I was a bit on the fence jumping into this book as the first one left me a little wanting but based on the ending of book one, I knew I was going to have to see what happens next for the characters, so I immediately dove into it and I am glad I did as the story got interesting. If you have not yet read book one, you might want to hold on reading this review as there are some things I will talk about that will for sure ruin that book for you if you don’t want any spoilers.

This book picks up shortly after the end of book one and things have drastically changed in Anna’s world. She is facing danger and conflict from both the Monarchy and the Praetheria and because her family doesn’t know the whole truth about her breaking the Binding, she doesn’t have anyone she can really rely on other than Gabor.

Politics plays a big role in this book. With the Binding broken, some Luminates who had magic have lost it and some lower-class citizens now have access to their magic for the first time. This is creating some unforeseen issues and add to that the Praetheria who are wandering free now want to be able to do what they like, and Anna is in a tough position. When she finds herself engaging with the Archduchess and her son both politically and personally, Anna needs to figure out where she stands and what she wants. Her heart still belongs to Gabor, but Gabor recognizes that they are coming from different worlds and will never be accepted which drives him to a decision that Anna doesn’t want to accept.

As I mentioned, Anna is trying to figure out what she wants. It is important to note that she is getting pressure from Hunger and Vasilisa (Praetheria) to help them get what they want, either through her attendance in the Congress or just her everyday activities. Because of who she is and who she knows, Anna has the ability to get the ear of some pretty powerful people. Unfortunately for her, as a young woman, her opinions and thoughts aren’t always accepted by those around her and when she discloses to all what her role was in releasing the Binding, things take a turn for the worse for her.

This book actually alternates perspectives from Anna to Matyas and while I found the chapters that were from Matyas’ perspective, I found myself hurrying through them to get back to Anna’s story. For some reason I found that part of the book more compelling and yes, we needed to understand what was happening with Matyas but I just happened to be more interested in what was going on with Anna.

For Matyas, he is coming to terms with who/what he is now and what his role in the world is. It was interesting to get his point of view on what he sacrificed to help Anna and then too, to hear how he felt he even failed at dying. I also thought it was interesting that at times, he had a bit of anger toward the fact that Anna was continuing to live her life and he didn’t know what to do with his now. As he starts to figure out where he fits and ultimately as his story starts to meet up with Anna’s I found myself turning the pages to see where Eves was going to link it all up.

Overall, I found myself enjoying this book more than the first one. I think the pacing felt better and the addition of Matyas’ point of view added a layer to the story that we didn’t have before. There were still points of the story that dragged a bit for me but overall, there was a great balance of character development, story development, and action / political intrigue. Consider checking out this series if you have not yet done so. I will be waiting on the next book to see what happens next for these characters.

Anna Arden thought that she was finished being a hero after breaking the Binding, freeing the praetheria, and securing Hungary's independence. She coming to terms with the death of her beloved Grandmama and the sacrifice of her cousin Matyas. But life couldn't be that easy. The upper class Luminates who lost their magic are resentful. Many commoners now have magic. The Austrian Empire wants Hungary back.

A Congress is being held in Vienna to discuss the fate of the Praetheria with no input from the praetheria. Russia wants to provide a refuge. Austria wants to regain Hungary. England wants to do anything to thwart Russia's land grab. Anna is being courted by Archduke Franz Joseph who is heir to the Austrian Empire but she is still in love with her Romani boy Gabor who is an aide in the Hungarian delegation.

Meanwhile, the praetheria have an agenda of their own. While some want to just want to live in peace, others are more interested in taking over the world and intent on using Anna to help them do so.

Still another faction of the praetheria has managed to bring Matyas back from the dead and want him to aide them in resisting those praetheria who want to conquer the world. Matyas isn't interested and falls in with a band of Robin Hood-like bandits and begins collecting preaetheria of his own who see him as a refuge and place of safely. Matyas doesn't want the responsibility; he doesn't see himself as any kind of hero. But events demand that he step up.

The story is divided into Anna's part and Matyas's part. Both are in danger and face tremendous dangers. They also both grow and change greatly in this middle book of a trilogy. Fans of epic fantasy which is also an alternate history story will enjoy this series. I'd start with book one though.

I had a great time with Blood Rose Rebellion and I was curious to find out more with it ending, so I was happy to receive an e-arc.

It is always difficult to write a sequel, there are the classic traps of the love triangle, the transition to book 3 which is sometimes to slow, among many others things. Here, I sincerely find that the author has done really well. At the end of Blood Rose Rebellion, the Praetheria were released in Hungary, the latter have multiple forms and intentions towards the humankind. I found it interesting to see their political game , just like the one from the humans. We feel very quickly that a war will be inevitable between them and humankind and the big question iss who will be the winners. It is a book in itself that does not have a huge "physical" action, but that has captivated me all the same with the political aspect.

This novel continues to follow Anna, she is a girl who dreams of ideal, she thought her acts were going to lead to a big change but it is not really the case here. She is a very idealistic heroine who is thirsty for justice, unfortunately she is also very naive and we learn very quickly that she will be screwed at some point. The book also follows another point of view, which surprised me, I will not say who, but it is easily guessed with the summary (big spoiler), and I must admit that it is a very good idea.

This second volume is therefore in my eyes a solid reading, the author has made good decisions that change a bit about what we see in YA. We are not in fantasy with a physically badass heroine, but Anna is touching. The clues for the sequel and last book are promising and I sincerely think I'll have a good time reading it when it comes out.

Okay, book 2 ... now THAT is what I'm talking about! Wow! OMG! GAWD! HOLY COW! Feel free to insert other terms of excitement.

Lost Crow Conspiracy was stunning, amazing and while the first book was good, book two was out of this world great. I loved this so much. It was so beautiful, lyrical, the growth of all the characters was handled phenomenally.

Look away now. I'll try to leave as many spoilers out as possible as this was so refreshing and needs to be read with no idea of how things go.

Let me being with Anna. Okay, so she's done it. She's broken the Binding. She's everyone's darling. Well, this, like peace, can only last for so long. No good deed goes unpunished. And punished she is. Of all the characters, I loved that it felt like Anna finally grew up. She reminded me so much of a child in the sense you can tell and tell and preach to your children, but they will never fully grasp the gravity of a situation until they experience it for themselves. They have to live it. And Anna did. There were so many times I was frustrated with her--like a child--but you still love them, and it's that frustration that comes from loving them. You sit back knowing what's going to happen but you are powerless to stop them. That was me and Anna the whole way through the book. Up until the final chapters and then that's when I wished I was there to hold her, comfort her and tell her everyone makes mistakes. We knew she was messing up--you just felt it in the pit of your stomach--we knew she was going to fall, and fall hard, but yet we have to be there at the end to pick her up. And the most refreshing part of her growth as a person? She recognized her faults, her mistakes, she laid them out for all to see and owned them. And I admire that. Lesson learned, my dear girl. Now brush off your knees and stand back up! I could empathize with her empathy towards the praetheria. But like all things, she was so invested in the praetheria (and it wasn't all unwarranted) that she couldn't see the forest for the trees. What was so beautiful about Lost Crow Conspiracy (at least this was my take away from it) was at the end of the day, there are good people and bad people. There are good humans and bad humans. There are good praetheria and bad praetheria. Anna, unfortunately got to experience the bad. And now onto who got to experience the good!

Matyas! Sweet, sweet, Matyas! His POV chapters were hands down my favorite! His story was so incredible and glorious to watch unfold. He's Matyas, son of a gambler, a son that most couldn't take serious, because he didn't take himself serious, and then at the end of Blood Rose Rebellion ... well, didn't he give all? And then you love him, want to kiss him, cry for him in the simplicity of his gift, a gift that turns out to be the greatest of all ... the gift of life, his life. And at the end of book one, it felt like Matyas was no more. But his story wasn't over, thank God. I can't put into enough words how compelling, amazing and beautiful his story was.

He was never looking to be chosen, but he was and it takes so long to embrace who and what he is and the responsibility that comes with that, but I couldn't imagine anyone else taking his role as leader and protector. He was destined for greatness. The only part that left me shocked, horrified and perhaps a tear did form in my eye, was The Lady. Not cool. Not cool at all. I get that the gravity of her loss I think catapulted him towards who he needed to be, but I loved her.

All the other characters, Neomi, Gabor, Catherine, William (I loved the growth in Anna and Catherine's relationship, it felt real and I could empathize with both sides) I loved reading about them too and am anxious to see where the road takes them. But Lost Crow Conspiracy belongs to Anna and Matyas!

Also, the lore, the creatures, the world ... it just felt like I was there.

I'm so excited to read the next in this fast paced series! I hope Ms. Eves writes fast. My mind is racing at how this is going to end.

I enjoyed this book better than the first one in the series. The story started out a bit slow for me but picked up speed towards the middle of the book. It alternated point of views which i liked, although i found myself loosing interest in the characters. Overall, the Lost Crow Conspiracy was a quick, entertaining read which ended on a high note but I'm not in any rush to read the next book.

I had a weird thing happen when I read this book. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what happened in book one, and I mixed up the plots of this and another book. I still can't tell you how book one went. I remember enjoying it, and I gave a 3-4 stars, but I... I don't know what is going on in book 2. I definitely need to read the first book again before I try the second, because, while it's written beautifully (despite my still not enjoying all of the accented names) nothing is sticking with me.

I really wanted to love this book because the first one was hard for me to get in to but I didn't adore it. I think that the character of Anna just isn't my favorite. Good read and I know some of my students will really enjoy this, but for me it was ok.

“Speaking your truth always matters. Don’t be afraid to be different-sometimes those very differences are what lend your voice strength.”

Although I did not read the first book in this series, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The plot was compelling, fast paced and fun to read. I loved how Eves combined Russian history and folklore to create a fascinating, yet terrifying world.

The characters are flawed, yet likable. I love how the book was told from the POV of a woman and a man. Ana has so much untapped power, yet she is weak as a woman in a patriarchal society. Mat likewise has untapped powers that he can't control and his weaknesses are very obvious, yet we root for him.

I loved the lyrical, descriptive language, the magical creatures, the creativity of the entire story. Great read! I'd like the read the others in the series now!

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: This was so exciting!

Check out author's other books? Yes
Recommend this book? Yes

Notes and Opinions: This was a fabulous sequal to this series man o man I couldnt put it down! If you loved book one you are going to die hard love this one! I read it in one sitting and I just couldnt stop I need another book now! I really liked the POV switch it was done well and was very smooth. This one picked right up where book one left off which was wonderful. The character development in this one was top notch and I cant wait to see where we go from here. Anna is coming into her own and the political discussions in this one were wonderful. You really got the feel of how and what everyone was trying to do and what they wanted to do. This was an epic fantasy that I couldn't put down and I so want to read again already!

Go Into This One Knowing: Epic Fantasy, Political (its really good), Growth

This was reviewed by Lauren

What a spellbinding, incredible and fantastic sequel! So many things happened in this book. ❤️❤️❤️

Lost Crow Conspiracy picks up straight where Blood Rose Rebellion ended. Anna is now in Vienna and met various members of nobility including the royal family of Austria. There she uncovers so much more about herself and the Praetheria, these beings which were trapped in the Binding.

The story flows really well and I loved the additional POV of Matyas. I really liked his part of the story as it was divided into parts which had distinctive voices and characters which grew on me. The scenes got me hooked and there was a dash romance which made the book much more exciting in terms of plot and pace.

I loved the character development in this book and the theme of acceptance and forgiveness in Lost Crow Conspiracy.

Furthermore, I liked the meddling of the court, politics and a brewing war between the two camps of Luminate and Praetheria due to their unjust treatment of each other (particularly the Praetheria).

Looking forward to reading Book 3 now!