I had previously had issues getting into this one but now, almost 3 years later, I finally managed to get through it. I'm not sure why it didnt grab me the first couple of times I tried but I can definitely say the audiobook made A WORLD of difference.

Starting where the first novel left off, Amari and Zelie are in hiding after they brought back magic to the Orisha. The problem is, they’ve also returned magic to the nobles who are still determined to eradicate the magi. From here, their problems unfold after finding out Amari’s mother is the strongest of them all, a centre who can funnel the magic from their peers and perform feats that would otherwise be impossible.

Now, this could have gone awry again when it came to me reading this one in its entirety. Thankfully my library had acquired both this and its predecessor and my morning commute has now become all about the audiobook life. Full of twists and turns, I found it a little predictable but at this point, most books are getting into the ‘been there done that’ realm.

Overall it was a good listen, with Bahni Turpin doing a fantastic job of bringing all these characters to life. Now if only I could find out how the series is going to progress. Alas, I feel its going to approach Rothfuss level waits as there seems to have been no recent announcements that we are even close to getting the next instalment

This book was good but not what I was expecting.
I loved Children of Blood and Bone, this book just left me feeling disappointed in the characters, their actions and where the story is heading.

Have not had a chance to read this yet (need to read the first book!), but will keep it on my list for a rainy day! Appreciate being offered the reading copy!

I did not realise this was book 2! Will go back and read book 1 and then come back to this. I will amend my review then.

I struggled to love this one as much as I did the first in the series. Part of that might be that it leapt straight into things immediately after the previous book ended, without really reminding the reader what had come before. And that probably wouldn't have been as much of a problem if it hadn't been 18 months since I read Children of Blood and Bone.

Although it's fairly common for second books in trilogies to be a bit on the slow side, I don't think that was my problem with this one. Rather, the characters that I so loved in the previous book were all at logger heads, all unable to see where the others were coming from because they were all so damned convinced that they were the only one who had the right plan to bring peace to the land.

No peace was brought as a result. This book is several hundred pages of several different skirmishes where a bunch of innocent people die (even if some of them do get brought back to life) because a bunch of people think that they know better.

I ended up not really liking any of the main three, Zélie, Amari or Inan, and instead was rooting for the rogue character who was sort of Zélie's love interest in this novel.

Added to not liking the main characters, I really disliked Amari and Inan's mother and wished she would die for pretty much all of the book. Especially when the twist came and other characters ended up on the chopping block instead of her.

Because I'm such a character driven reader, this book was a bit of a disappointment for me.

"I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review"

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.
Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.
With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Wow, this book messed with my emotions in a way I was not expecting I will admit I enjoyed the first book but this one has me more invested and wanting to keep reading so I knew what would happen next. I had no idea whose side I was on and who I was angry at because things changed so quickly and rolls swapped all throughout the book. The characters angered me all throughout the book but I have to say that even when saying that I still wanted to know how it was going to backfire on them each and every time.

The story was additive and gripping from the very first page and has left with a cliffhanger I was not expecting and has left me needing the next book right now. I ended up rating this 4.5 stars and the only reason it wasn't a 5 star book was because I wanted to yell at the characters all the time and I think I got a few more grey hairs because of them.

I was SO excited for this sequel but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I enjoyed it but didn't love it. Similar to the first book in the series, I thought the pacing was a bit off and I just couldn't really get into the world building. Two books into the series, and I still can't quite explain to you how the magic system works or the motivations of the characters or how the rivalries and relationships all came to develop (other than one side has magic and wants to preserve it, while the other side hates magic and wants to destroy it). It also jumps straight into the action following the end of the first book without any recap so I felt a little lost right from the beginning (I would recommend a re-read of at least the ending of the first book before diving into this one!) Having said that, there is so much action in this book which made for a great page turner. I loved how the author explored the idea of vengeance and the cycle of constantly wanting to get revenge against someone who has wronged you in the past. I will still read the third book and am super excited for the movie!

3.5 stars.

I was a little disappointed in this book. The first one took me by surprise, but how it won me over, this book tore apart.
This boom seemed a little directionless, as if the author didn’t quite know where she wanted to go, or how she wanted things to go down. Things happen and aren’t explained, the repercussions of the first book not touched on. It’s almost like what happened didn’t matter.
I hated Amari in this book. Hated her. She pushed her way in where she didn’t belong and didn’t understand why people didn’t accept her.
I loved Roen but fear a love triangle with an ending I’m not going to like.
Zelie endeared herself to me even more. I love her strength, her vulnerability.
Inan disappointed me, never really making the hard decisions.
Despite this book, I still really want to see how this series plays out, I just hope it all comes together a little neater.

As promised by the cliffhanger ending of Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi is back in the second book of her hit YA Legacy of Orïsha series. The sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, picks up one month after the world-changing events of the first book. After overturning the status quo, the sequel delivers more of what made the first book so successful with its young adult target market. For those who have not read the first book and are interested in this series this review will contain some mild spoilers for that book.
Magic user Zélie has managed to bring magic back to the Kingdom of Orïsha but at great and traumatic personal cost. Her father is dead as, it seems, is her frenemy Prince Inan who ended up betraying her. And while she has been successful in returning magic to the common people who can be recognised by their white hair, the spell has also given magic back to the aristocracy who now have a white streak in their hair. So rather than redressing the existing power imbalance in her country where the magic users (or maji) were reviled, a new, magic fuelled imbalance has arisen. Her comrade, former princess Amari, who now also has magic abilities, believes she can heal this rift and become a queen who unites all of the people. But her first major speech to the people is disrupted by her mother (Queen Nehanda – who turns out to be as black a villain as her dead husband) who’s aim is to use the new power of the ruling class to finally put an end to the maji.
The stage is then set for huge set piece magic battles as the two sides dig in against each other. Each time it feels like some progress will be made towards peace, the weight of historical animosity comes to the fore and the battle intensifies another notch. And these battles are epic, the range of magical powers (power over air, water, fire, earth, spirits etc) give this volume even more of a Last Airbender/Legend of Korra feel than the previous volume. But the magic-fuelled battles are epic and well handled by Adeyemi.
While it once again wears its YA fantasy influences on its sleeve, this series stands apart due to its well realised African setting. Much like Tade Thompson’s recent Wormwood trilogy, Adeyemi does more than just locate the action in an alternative Africa but uses the often bloody colonial history as the basis and template for her fantasy world. She uses this world to explore the often violent imbalance between rich and poor and, in particular, the pervasive nature of cycles of violence. When this book opens it is the newly awakened maji who have turned to violence to take their resentment out on the aristocracy. After that each step is just another rehashing and step-up of historical grievances leaving plenty of bodies on both sides.
But this is still a YA book where the main characters are teenagers. This means that much of the action is driven by young people having to step up and make hard decisions. There is plenty here about loyalty to your friends, to your tribe, to your people. This is particularly the case for royal Amari who tries to find her place among the maji but also to follow her greater vision of ruling a united Orïsha. Her boyfriend, and Zélie’s brother Tzain is particularly torn between his sister’s quest for revenge and Amari’s sometimes questionable methods for achieving peace. Zélie herself, still hurting from her relationship with Inan, also finds herself a roguish Han Solo-esque new love interest just to complicate matters a little further.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance continues to flesh out and test the limits of Adeyemi’s world anchored by engagingly flawed characters and plenty of thrilling moments, huge battles and major revelations. But after all that, there is little resolution here. This is the second book of a trilogy and given the first book ended on a cliffhanger that upended the world it is no surprise that this book does too in a way that will leave fans hanging for the final instalment.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com.

Children of Virtue and Vengence picks up where it's predecessor left off. Zelie and co have succeeded in bringing magic back to Orisha, and now their sights are set on the monarchy who have brought them nothing but pain. Not only has magic been brought back to the maji, but some of the nobles who have magical ancestry within them. The fight for Orisha will not be as easy as first thought now that there is a new magical foe to face. The fight rages on and Zelie a tempts to put Amari on the throne before Orisha crumbles underneath them. Can Zelie lead the maji to victory before it's to late?

Actual rating of 3.75

When I saw this available for request I nearly died. Then when I was accepted to review it I thought I was dreaming. I've got so many eARC galleys still waiting to be read, but I just had to push this one to the front of the queue. I absolutely fell in love with the first instalment, it really touched on some real world issues in a YA fantasy setting that was incredibly relevant to what has been happening over the last few years.

The characters are the same that we fell in love with in CoBaB, though I have to admit, I wanted to simultaneously shake, slap and throttle three of them. For a good majority of the book, Zelie is wallowing in self pity and is really laying on the woe is me. I'm not going to lie, it really began to bug the hell out of me, I get it, she's gone through a lot, but there is no time to wallow and cry about it, we have a monarchy to take down and a new world to usher in!! And Amari, oh Amari, I found myself absolutely appalled by a lot of her decisions, her opinions are valid but come on woman, THINK!! Ask yourself, "would my rather have done this?" If the answer is yes, DON'T DO IT!!! I have however developed a major soft spot for Roën.

There's not a great deal of worldbuilding happening in this one as it was mostly set up in the first one, however we are treated to a beautiful setting that is ancient to the maji and I adored it. Some truths come to light about the war and such, and while it did give me a holy crap moment, I was not surprised by the revelations.

I did find the pacing at times to be lagging a bit and it felt like it took me WAY too long to get through something I was so excited about. Granted, I've had a lot going on lately, it still took me a while to get through it. I feel that the story really ramped it up in the last 20% hence the higher rating, and the cliff hanger has definitely left me hanging for the next one!!

Apologies for the short review, I've been impacted by the bushfires ravaging Australia at the moment and am typing this on my tablet, so short and sweet is where it's at right now x

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of Children of Virtue and Vengeance, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Please note, this is book 2 in the series, and my review may contain spoilers for book 1, Children of Blood and Bone



I must admit, I did struggle a bit to remember what happened in Children of Blood and Bone, so there were several instances in the first half of the book where I was mostly just trying to remember who was who and how they fit in to the story – which is not the book’s fault, it’s down to my bad memory, but it did contribute to a fair bit of confusion for me for a while.

I really love the character’s in this series, but I still enjoyed Children of Blood and Bone a lot more than this one. It just felt like more ‘happened’ in the first book. Most of Children of Virtue and Vengeance revolves around Amari’s fight for the throne and the remaining bad blood between Zélie and the prince. I think I enjoyed the back stories and character development so much in the first book that it felt like something was missing, due to the lack of that, in the sequel. The ending of Children of Blood and Bone had me dying to read the next book, but I didn’t quite feel the same at the end of this one.

I did love the interesting character development from some of Children of Blood and Bone’s side characters, coupled with the action and devastating magic towards the second half of the book and of course, there’s still something about settling back into a story with characters you adore, but the plot just didn’t seem to cover enough new ground. There we’re some major revelations, but in the scheme of the whole plot, they were a drop in an ocean of a repetitive story. There was also a trope that I’m really not a fan of. Let’s just say, if author’s are going to kill a character, let them stay dead. If they can survive in a plausible way, fine, but don’t just bring them back with an ‘oh look, they’re not really dead!’. That might just be a personal preference of mine though!

Although this one didn’t quite meet my high expectations, I’m still looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book!

Review will be live December 26th latest.

This review is hard to write without excessive use of caps lock and expletives purely for all the action, twists and turns Tomi threw into this book 🙈

Just like its predecessor, Children of Virtue and Vengeance is brilliant! The sequel is just as special as the original and I loved being back in Orisha with Zelie and Amari and everyone else ❤

The characters are just as strong and conflicted, potentially even more so 😆 their relationships built, destroyed and rebuilt. Empires rising and falling.

The plot is fast paced and thrilling. It is action packed with the right amount of drama and heartache but still a nice amount of romance and heartwarming platonic relationships built up that leave you seriously invested in the characters 😍

If you haven't read any of Tomi's books I heartily recommend you do ❤

I read this in two days, because I needed to know what's happening.
I was a bit annoyed at the constant shifting of plans and opinions between Amari and Zélie. Everytime one changed their mind the other did too and they wouldn't just agree on anything. Sometimes when I read a new chapter it wasn't entirely clear which voice I was reading, as both of them were too similar.
I wasn't a fan of the cliffhanger/ending at all, because it seemed very out if the blue. Not sure if this is just because it's supposed to be a trilogy. You could've wrapped this up nicely in just a duology too.