This book finished with a major cliffhanger.

This is the second book in the omte origins series and follows on from The Lost City. Ulla is searching for information about Khmer heritage as she was abandoned as a baby and has never met her parents. She is also searching for her friend Eliana who has been kidnapped by her twin sister and taken to the lost city. Ella and her friends go on a mission to bring her back.

I found this storyline a little slow but the ending came about too soon and left me waiting for the next book so I can see what happens next!

#netgalley #amandahocking #TheMorningFlower #OmteOrigins

This picked up where the first book left off. Pan and Ulla are traveling to the Omte Capital to learn more about her parents and to find their fun loving friend Eliana who has been kidnapped. This book has more to the story line than the first one did. Pan and Ulla keep having their back and forth relationship. Just when you think they are going to move forward with each other, one of them decides that it isn't the right time and that they should wait. Pan's devotion to following Ulla becomes more distinct in this book.

You get to travel with the story to a place that is hidden from the world of humans and that even if they saw it, they would instantly forget what they saw. Ulla finds out more about where she came from and that she has siblings, that she was kidnapped as a baby and that her mother has now passed. The story leaves off on a cliffhanger.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I was excited to get a copy of this book so I could find out what happened to Ulla and continue her journey. The story picks up where the last one. Ulla and Pan are traveling to the capital city. They are looking for more information on Ulla's parents. This is a lot of mystery and secret to be discovered in this book. I want to talk about all the things I love about this, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone else. The story is so well done that I feel like I am on the journey with them and they pull at my heart with each step. I am more then ready for the last book in this trilogy.

So this is the second book in this series, and while I had planned to read it this summer right after I read the first one, The Lost City, as I keep mentioning, my reading/reviewing schedules just don’t follow my plans. This second book ended on a major cliffhanger! Fortunately I do have the third book to review already, but again, I haven’t been able to get to it as soon as I would have liked. But since it doesn’t come out till January, I do have it scheduled in next month to read in time for it’s publishing date. I plan to give it its own post too since I’ve got it scheduled in like I did with the first one. I love that this one went down to Louisiana for a lot of the story. It was neat to once again see the trolls in different areas of the world. There was a big twist, but I wondered if it was true as I read, because I just didn’t know if I could trust the different people in the story. All I know is that I’m excited to get to this one next month to find out who was telling the truth and fix that cliffhanger!

This book picks up right where The Lost City left off. Ulla and Pan are staying with a friend when they learn of a man that is from the First City. He also could or could not be Ulla's father. The Institute decides to send Ulla, along with Pan, Dagney, and Elof, to Sweden to learn more about the First City.


There was a lot of new and exciting information in this book. I can't wait to dive into the new book in this trilogy.

Ulla learns about her family in this book. Maybe even a bit more than she wanted to.

Ulla and Pan's romance blossoms a little more as well.

Thank you, NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book. I was so excited to continue on with this series. Oh my gooodness did it leave on a cliff hanger. I love Amanda hocking and cannot wait to read ever after!

Amanda Hocking knows how to finish her books... WITH MAJOR CLIFFHANGINGS!!!!

I really liked this second book in the Omte Origins series. Loved to find my favorite characters once again, loved to see the new adventures of Ulla, trying to find her family...

All laced in folklore, the world building of this series is amazing. There is a lot of work in there, and it shows.

Can't wait to know what will happen in book 3!

Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Sooo thought I already left my review! Sorry it’s late!

Amanda Hocking is one of my favorite authors. The way she strings the story together and keeps you reading until the very last page. This book was no different! I couldn’t put it down! Great story! Very well written!!

I am so happy that Amanda wrote this book!! 15 year old me is screaming that there is an Omete trilogy. I really enjoyed this book, I can't wait for the end of this new trilogy, the new characters are so good!

Eeeeeeek! There are too many words to described my love for this world and how each one is better than the last. Anyway, Ulla's journey continues and we finally get answers to many questions from the first book.

Ulla and Pan take time to go search for answers to both Ulla's life and what might have happened to her friend. The start of the trip was a little awkward after finding out Pan's friend they will be staying with is a girl, well his ex really. Throughout the trip, Ulla doesn't gain too much information. She does get to meet with the Queen, get info on a man who maybe knows about the hidden bridge and so on. So after a few days they head back home.

Now back home, they go back to work and continue to look for answers. Then just as quickly as they got back, they get sent back out along with a few other folks as ambassadors. What Ulla gets this time is an overload of information. Her mothers name, meets her dad, her missing friend is more than just a friend and things don't slow down from there.

I can't wait to dive into the next book, even if it may mean the end of a world I've come love.

I loved this book! I’ve been a fan of Amanda Hocking since the Switched series so when I heard she had a another one I was so excited!! I enjoyed each character and the plot was amazing!

I really enjoyed this novel. I find the links between characters in this trilogy and the others already written very appealing. I like that the stories are interwoven and provide background (and a glimpse of the future) for characters we already know and love.

Ulla's adventure is becoming incredibly complicated. It is interesting to follow, but the questions left to be answered almost seem to much for the third book. I'm hopeful that they will be adequately addressed because I do enjoy her story. When this comes to a resolution, I'm not sure how dark things are going to get. It almost seems as if war is on the horizon. Perhaps instead of hoping for answers to all my questions in one novel, I can hope for another trilogy! I can't wait to read the final book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing a copy of this eARC for review.

4.25

wow, that's some serious mystery plot we've got going on this time! There is so much going on in Ulla's world at this point I honestly don't even know what to think about where everything is going!

This is classic Amanda Hocking, amazing plot lines, great mysteries, political and societal issues, and the most ADORABLE romances.

I don't want to go too far into it because it's a sequel but if you have read Amanda's works before, this definitely lives up to its predecessors.

I don't think this suffers from middle book syndrome either, I think it was a great read.

Cover 4; Character 4; Plot 4; Pace 4; Writing 4; Enjoyment

The Morning Flower picks up right were The Lost City left off. Following the kidnapping of Eliana, Ulla And Pan are headed to the Omte capital in search of answers about Ulla’s parents as well as to figure out what exactly happened to Eliana.

Where The Lost City is more action focused, The Morning Flower focuses more on Ulla’s personal journey to understanding herself. The Morning Flower still boasts the intricate world building that Amanda Hocking is known for, but we really dive deep into what it means to be Omte and the history of that tribe. I thought it provided a greater insight into this tribe that up until now has remained a huge mystery within the troll kingdoms.

I don’t want to give anything away, but there are definitely a lot of revelations in this book that I didn’t see coming. This book does end on quite a cliffhanger, but I can’t wait to see how this trilogy wraps up in the end.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jordan – ☆☆☆
After finishing The Lost City (The Omte Origins #1), I had hoped that maybe book two, The Morning Flower, would hold more appeal, but I ended up feeling just as disenchanted with the sequel as I was with the first book. I just didn’t care for it.

I really wanted to like this series and I hoped that I might find myself more enchanted with The Morning Flower, but that just wasn’t the case. The Morning Flower picks up shortly after the ending of The Lost City, with Ulla and Pan on the road to the Omte capital. Much like the first book, the second book seemed to just drag itself out without anything of real interest happening for the majority of the book and then the only interesting tidbits seemed to happen in the last 20% of the book, only for it to end with another cliffhanger. At this point, I don’t even feel the desire to read the final book in The Omte Origins trilogy. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find myself interested enough in Ulla or even the spark of potential between her and Pan or any other potential love interest such as, Jem-kruk. I had hoped that I might feel more enamored with Hocking’s characters by the end of The Morning Flower, but that wasn’t the case.

All in all, three stars for The Morning Flower by Amanda Hocking.

**I received this book from netgalley in exchange for a review**

"I have to be honest with you. Ulla. [...] This all sounds incredibly sketchy."†
^^^ me at Ulla during this entire book

I was really hoping for a little more from this book. It makes sense there was a lot of building in book one, so new readers would understand the world (and returning readers get to know new peoples and places). Book 1 seemed to set up TONS of things for book 2 to delve into. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to any of that until the last third or so of this book. Once we finally got there, it was so interesting! I just wish I hadn't had to get through so much travel/research/etc. scenes to get to the action. I also feel like the characters lost much of their personalities through of this book. Ulla was just... acting differently and I couldn't follow her thought processes for much of the book. Pan fell flat, whereas I was really intrigued by him in the first book. Jem-Kruk just came across as super creepy in this book, where he had more ~mysterious stranger~ vibes in book 1. Dagne was still cool, but she was in this book less. We met basically all the interesting characters in that ending bit, once they finally reached their destination.

PLEASE BOOK THREE. Give me more action!

†check against final text

I really enjoyed the world-building in this book but I could have done with a bit more action. I didn't really care about the romance set up between Pan and Ulla as it was set up so slow. I don't know if I really care to read the third book to be completely honest.

Thank you Net Galley & St. Martins Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
*
Woo!! Another book my Amanda Hocking! I'll admit I always get excited when I've got a new book/ series from her; and this book like all other did not disappoint.

I will note- that unlike so many other series you will most certainly need to read the first book in the Omte series if would want to have a clue as to whats going on. Hocking's does not recap the first book like many other authors; you are just thrust into the world.
The Omte series is a spin off of the Trylle series- which was a fave of mine. While I will admit to enjoying the Trylle more- Hockings still delivered a books that comes to life as you read.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for the last installment.

Title: The Morning Flower
Author: Amanda Hocking
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 3.0 out of 5

When Ulla Tulin took her internship at the Mimirin, the only mystery she thought she'd have to solve was that of her birth parents. After a girl named Eliana gets kidnapped while in her care, Ulla knows she has to find out the truth of who Eliana really is—and the only way to do that means traveling to the Omte capital, the place she suspects her mother is from.

Ulla didn’t expect that when she arrived she would discover the identity of a Skojare man who crossed paths with her mother—a man who could very well be her father. When the head of the Mimirin learns Ulla's father is connected to the Älvolk, a secret society who believes they were tasked with protecting the First City and the only ones who know its location, he sends Ulla and Pan to Sweden where they find him living among the Älvolk. But all is not what it seems with the Älvolk and their urgent quest to find the Lost Bridge to the First City leaves Ulla feeling uneasy—and possibly in danger.

I like the idea of the troll mythology—although they’re basically humans living secretly among other humans—but I just don’t think Hocking is the best author for me to read. This felt really slow-paced to me, with a lot of unnecessary details and plot points, frankly. And the “romance” was a non-starter.

Ulla spends the whole book trying to figure out who her parents are, then her dad basically comes out of nowhere, knowing he’s her dad and offering her all the secrets of the Älvolk without hesitation, including taking her to their secret city? This was completely unbelievable and came across as heavy-handed deux ex machina.

Amanda Hocking is a YA author. The Morning Flower is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

I have been a HUGE fan of Amanda since her very first novel and 'The Morning Flower' did not disapoint. I fell inlove with the characters and the world building.