The end resolves a little too quickly: there's a whole lot crammed into the last fifteen pages that really deserved more page time, and a little more explanation would be appreciated.

I was so excited to get my hands on this sequel because I loved the first book SO MUCH! It had been fast-paced, filled with cunning characters, and felt high stakes. I remember binging it in a night despite having to get up early for work the next morning.

In comparison, this book was a little bit of a let down after the greatness of the first. The pacing seemed a little off - without Baccha and Eva/Isa in close quarters, we lost a lot of the suspense and thrill that made me love the first book so much. Akaeto was a huge redeeming quality because I was so excited to have their romance explored, but it was took such a back burner I was left wanting more.

A major redeeming quality to this book is Joy's ability to make us like Isa again. I thought I would hate her POVs but I was pleasantly surprised.

Overall, Joy's world building and imagination is unmatched to me. I will be thinking about this world a lot longer than the characters in it. I will be sure to pick up anything she writes next.

apologies for the late review, i ended up with a physical copy and didnt realize i had this one! as someone who has followed amanda joy from before she was even published, this one hit all my favorite feelings. cant wait for more from her

This book was just sadly not for me! I was hoping for something different but it turned out to be something I was not expecting, which is okay and I'm sure someone else would love it!

I apologize on being very late for this review but I did not even know I had this still downloaded! I thought I had lost it but alas it was found. What a wonderful sequel to the first book. A magical novel or romance and fantasy that all should read!

I enjoyed the first book in this duology but this was definitely a let down. I request the arc but really couldn’t get through it the first time I picked it up. This was my second go round and I got further but still ended up skimming over good chunks.

The synopsis of this story sounds amazing and I love tales that focus on sisters. Unfortunately, I have never read the first book, so I got confused while reading this one and did not finish it. This sounds like a thrilling fantasy book, so I highly recommend giving it a try once you complete book 1.

I loved the first book in this series and I really love the new covers Penguin Teen designed. The narrator for the first audiobook was phenomenal so I was also disappointed to see they had changed narrators for the second book.

Ok, on to the things I liked. I liked that we got more points of view in this book. Eva and her sister's POVs were both interesting and I love a villain redemption arc. I also loved the story of sisterhood that played out in this book.

Now, I didn't like the love triangle and I wanted Bacchus to be endgame.

Lastly, I felt the ending was a bit rushed and wished that there had been a bit more to this story and world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a huge let down for me. It moved so slow and felt like it was trying to meet a word count instead of wrap up the story.

The follow up to A River of Blood was an interesting conclusion to the first novel. Isa and Eva are well developed characters though the story tended to slow down in spots.

After thoroughly enjoying A River of Royal Blood, I fully expected to love A Queen of Gilded Horns, but alas, that is not the case. I think that this book had so much potential with expanding on the worldbuilding and the rivalry between the sisters, but it ultimately fell flat. I wish we would've gotten more of Isadore's perspective versus the new POVs in this story.

I didn’t love the first book from this series, but I felt like the sequel really made up for it. So many of the issues from the first book were fixed here, and it made me love these characters and this story even more. Amanda Joy made something amazing here.

Picking up where book 1 ended, Eva and Isa are on the run from the ruthless queen mother.. Still grappling with the facts that she's supposed to kill her sister to become queen, the fact that her parents lied to her, and the grave injustices done to the queendom's people, new revelations and realizations are changing everything as she knows it. Will Eva and Isa find a way to rule together and save their people? The plot is action-packed and fast-paced. Themes of parental disappointment, sibling bonds and rivalry, and diversity are explored in depth. Characters are likable, well-developed, and easy to relate to. Readers who enjoy fantasy, adventure, and action will want to pick this one up.

This series has a lot of potential and is a solid story, but it’s lacking and not a favorite of mine. I struggled to get through this one even though I enjoyed the first book! Overall, the it’s an enjoyable read if you can look past some things.

A highly anticipated book that I was so excited to read. I enjoyed that this book picked up where it left off which I was excited for. The ending was not what I expected and that’s not a bad thing. When you read ard are engaged in a book you always want more

After the explosive ending of book one, I was excited to read A Queen of Gilded Horns to see what the repercussions would be...This series just gets darker and more sinister I'm really enjoying the writing and characters. The magic is great. As with book one, the strong characters and rich world building, weave together to create a magical yet dark world. I particularly enjoyed the tension between characters and the challenges they face being together. The story is well written and is a great mix of intrigue, fighting and romance. This duology was a success in my eyes.
Review to come on YouTube.

Also in the interest of full transparency it's hard for me to say how much of a let down this was. It's mostly why it's getting the two stars though objectively you could make a case for rounding up to the three.

For me the book definitely falls apart in the third act. The narrative spent a lot of the page time skipping through time, but the third act does this even more aggressively, to the point where chapters started to feel more like the outlines and rough ideas of passages than they did actual finished text. I can appreciate the themes that Joy wanted to bring into the world, and I think that they're integrated well, but the plot cannot support the runtime. Even when this installment seeks to introduce new elements and perspectives, both of which find themselves getting short changed as the story also seeks to wrap itself up in the span of two books. What this duology ultimately feels like is a story and a half; something that should have been fully expanded to fill the two book runtime or perhaps edited more and Frankenstein-ed into a single installment where a reader could follow Eva's journey and not feel let down in the ways that I did.

I still enjoyed Joy's writings and the characters that she breathed life into, and it's really for those reasons that I have to give this rating that I do. I don't know if I would recommend this, or if I'd recommend the first book as much as I have in the past knowing now how the conclusions plays out.

Very much enjoyed this series. Unfortunately, this didn't hold up to the same pedestal I held book 1 at. I just wasn't as connected as I was in book 1. I felt a disconnect for a good portion of the book.

I wanted to love this book/duology so much because the covers are awesome, but the pair just didn’t measure up to my expectations. I loved the idea of another play on dueling sisters (which seems to be a trend in YA right now “Three Dark Crowns,” “These Feathered Flames,” etc.). Book 1 set up a lot of information so I thought I was ready to settle in and ride out the second book with my knowledge of the world solid, but this story seemed very confusing. And, just when I felt caught up and into the plot, things slowed down in the middle. Really good story but pacing and editing could have been better.

A River of Royal Blood is one of my favorite YA fantasies. Utterly immersive world-building, the most delicious of court intrigues, and a sibling rivalry for the ages. Eva and Isa are rival heirs, meaning one of them must kill the other for the right to become queen. It’s how things are done in Ternain. A Queen of Gilded Horns is a strong sequel (although slightly slower in pace and with an ending that feels a tad rushed) and a must for fans of book one. The characters are just as strong. The plot twists will keep you guessing. And Prince Aketo… *swoons*. It’s in this book, told from multiple perspectives, that we get to experience the conflict between rival heirs Eva and Isadore (as well as the rising tensions between humans and magically gifted khimaer) from multiple angles. A satisfying conclusion to a great fantasy duology.