I was really looking forward to this, but it didn't work for me. Sadly it was Eda that made the book unbearable. It's hard to get through a book when the main character is incredibly selfish. I couldn't even admire her as a queen because she was not politically savvy at all.

Eda made a deal with a god to become empress. Of course things quickly go awry. She didn't have the right allies to strengthen her political power, so although she was the empress, her grip on the kingdom was fragile. I actually found it shocking that she didn't have spies gathering information on her enemies in the empire. Apparently she expected that no one would go against her because she was the empress. There were not any long term plans to improve the kingdom. It was no wonder people wanted her deposed since she was immature, naive and bitter.

The first half of the book was the weakest, which focused on politics. There was a big twist about halfway through that I saw coming a mile away. The second half improved because Eda was more personable although, much to my dismay, she never stopped being extremely self-centered. Her reasons for wanting revenge weren't great. All she did was blame the gods for her own bad choices. I would have liked the ending better if it had been for a dismal, depressing ending rather than try to achieve a semi-happy one.

A great YA that oozes atmosphere and compelling characters! Beyond the Shadowed Earth hooked me from page 1!

I unfortunately DNF this book around 50% of the way through. I found the main character really quite bratty & the plot seemed to jump around a bit too much for my liking

Unfortunately, I just didn't click with Beyond the Shadowed Earth. I've never read Beyond the Haunted Sea, but you can definitely understand the story without it. Would it have been a more captivating read if I had? I'll never know. I loved the idea of Beyond the Shadowed Earth. Deals with gods always have disastrous consequences we can never anticipated. And while I felt bad for her, because the things Eda holds dear are being ripped from her, I never really connected with Eda. And that problem stayed the same more or less for the entire book.

I could never really figure out Eda and even though her character goes through some development throughout the book, she doesn't change enough in a way for me to understand her. Fueled by her own sense of entitlement and revenge, she's bitter that the gods have taken from her, that she's done what she can, but it's not enough. She rages at the gods for never hearing her. But the characters in the book question her and her motives - demonstrating how personal everyone's relationship with their gods are.

I was new to Ms. Meyer's books and maybe I should have read the book that was written before so I would have understood a bit more of the world. However, one of my biggest problems i probably not Meyer's felt but the version I received was so poor that I was having such a hard time reading it and so I gave up.. The works were jumbled and letters were on the wrong lines I was so frustrated so I'm going to give this a 3 as I will try it again in print and I will also read the first book that is set in the same world first.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the attempt to read this ARC.

This is set in the same world as the authors previous book Beneath the Haunting Sea but is not exactly a sequel and I guess I should describe it as a companion story as it’s fleshing out the world building. I was intrigued by the idea of a heroine who wasn’t exactly heroic but honestly struggled to actually like Eda. I think I clearly need to feel sympathy, camaraderie or just plain empathy and sadly even though the journey throughout this story is leading Eda to conquer her own demons sadly I was just left feeling dissatisfied at the end.
Essentially we have Eda who has lied, cheated and murdered in order to become Empress but along the way she also offered a soul, a life if you will but not her own oh no definitely never her own ! Now Eda is surrounded at Court by those seeking to depose her possibly even execute her but all she cares about is the fact that she’s done everything asked of her by the tricky God only to see her friend whose life she so casually bartered away become ill. Treachery and hatred, ambition and murder are rife throughout this story with an ending that I feel is perhaps meant to show redemption but sadly this reader just wanted more emotion.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

This was such a good and unique book! This was an excellent companion novel to Beneath the Haunting Sea and I found Eda to be endlessly fascinating. The writing style was extremely enjoyable and the mythology/political intrigue aspect was great.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the e-arc!

High, almost gothic fantasy with a heavy dose of godly interference. The prose was solid, but the pacing was problematic for me. It is a standalone novel set in a world developed in a previous book, so the pacing issues may arise from the author's assumption everyone already knows how the world works. The MC is (intentionally) terrible, which I always find to be boring but others may well love.

DNF’ed because I didn’t realize it was a continuation of another book, also because the file that was sent to my Kindle to read was all messed up and jumbled up the sentences and paragraphs and split words apart.

This isn't technically a sequel to Beneath the Haunting Sea as it is more of a companion novel. I still think that you should read BtHS because it's where we are first introduced to Eda and it really is the driving force for this novel.

I enjoyed the first book and in some ways I loved this book more. I think that there is a lot of good lessons that can be learned if you look between the lines and sometimes they are right at the surface.

Eda is the Empress of half the world. She has everything she wanted but it all came with a price. Even though she did terrible things in the first book and we learn more about those things in this book, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She loses her parents and everything seems to spiral after that and where love once was, revenge has now replaced it. The one word that always came to mind for her and even the god Tuer, was selfishness. Of course, there was a lot of pride, but it all still boiled down to being selfish. I think that is one reason why she was so relatable. We have all been there wanting it all and more, then reality slaps us in the face. Eda struggles throughout and becomes like an onion. So many layers are removed by the end and then we finally see Eda for the person she truly is.

There are other characters in this book that are just as memorable as Eda. Ileem, who is a prince, and his sister also come from a harsh background of loss. Even though they are related they each deal with grief in different ways. One becomes so consumed by revenge that they will do anything to satisfy their need for it. This can even be seen as a lesson as it is always important to know when finding peace is really more important than hurting more people in the process of seeking revenge.

Just like in Beneath the Haunting Sea, the gods and goddesses are back. Along with that, there are new stories for the ones that are important like Tuer, who is the driving force for the plot. I loved learning about him even though he was super selfish and I just wanted to punch him a couple times. The mythology was interesting and definitely kept me intrigued.

As for the plot, it was fast paced and kept my attention. I didn't want to put the book down and picked it back up any chance I got. The plot twists were definitely unexpected and had me gasping out loud. The ending was a bit better than the first book and didn't feel as anti-climatic. I also thought the writing was much better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It is such a compelling read told by a girl that had done terrible things but was looking for a way to redeem it all.

I liked reading this book even if it contains a lot of tropes we see in YA books. We follow Eda, a girl who made a deal with a God in order to become an empress. When things are going in a way she doesn't like, she decide to take revenge. It was interesting to read because, in France, we don't have a lot of books about emperiality, gods for young readers. I hope it will be translate in french so I can recommand it to everybody.

An interesting story that I enjoyed. Not your usual YA fantasy, it has an exciting quest with a great character arc for the main character. I love any book that has gods and political intrigues. I would recommend to fans of Emily Duncan's Wicked Saints.

This book was received as an ARC from Page Street Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have never been more excited to read a book than I have with Beyond the Shadowed Earth. This is due to being a big fan of the style written by Sarah J Maas having a twisted take on a classic fairy tale and taking it in a whole new direction. This time it is all about Eda and her desire to become empress and rule the kingdom. With every reward comes risk, she has to barter with the gods and she risks the life of her best friend. Then after she becomes empress, her best friend gets sick and dies and goes to the underworld and when given the opportunity to save her best friend, she is more than willing even if it means swapping places. The suspense and drama involved with this story was so breathtakingly addicting that I could not stop reading and I know our teen book club will go crazy for this book.

We will consider adding this book to our YFiction collection in our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I think this author may simply not be for me. I really didn’t like Echo North. And I gave this a good go but couldn’t get to the end. Meyer writes beautiful, cut crystal prose. Her ideas are good. But for me personally there’s always something missing from the final product. I strongly suspect this is as much me being at fault as a reader as the author not delivering. If you enjoyed the author’ previous books, you’ll probably like this one.

Although I did not read the first book and I didn't even realize this was a companion novel I was fine. I didn't think that I was missing anything but I will be going back to read the first novel. This one was a redemption story and I have a soft spot for those. You really feel for Eda throughout the entire story, with everything that she went through. All of the fantasy elements in this one were wonderful and fresh. I don't think I have really read another title like this. The pacing was well done and I never felt lost in the writing. So many fantasy titles go over the top and you get lost in the story (in a bad way) but this one was not confusing at all. I think that readers who loved The Lord of Rings might really enjoy this one!

Besides he description I was sold the moment that this book was pitched for fans of Leigh Bardugo. I’m a huge fan and if anything is going to be compared to her novels sign me up. I don’t know if I was in a weird reading mood or I just didn’t like Eda. But I strongly disliked her character and many of the side ones. If I can’t connect with a character, typically a book is a no go for me. I made it about 30% before I closed the book for good. Even though this book wasn’t my cup of tea, I am excited to see what everyone else is going to think of it in the upcoming months!

(I gave it 3 stars because the idea is interesting and the world building is good otherwise and that isn’t the reason behind why I chose to DNF.)

I didn't know this was a companion to another book, but it read great as a stand alone and has me wanting to read the other book. I enjoyed the characters and the writing as well!