I really wanted to love this, because the first book was a four star for me. I just could not get into this. I was really hoping to love. I am going to soft DNF at the moment, and come back and update at a later date. I would really like to give this book a second chance.
2 star for now

Silver Under Nightfall was one of my top reads of 2023, and I do think Court of Wanderers suffered from a sophomore slump. It did not live up to the perfect pacing, tension, and intrigue of the first book. I think it was slow at times, and even though I still love the relationship, I did not connect with the story as much as book one. Still a good book, but a tiny bit of a letdown.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5

There is simply life before these characters, and after. I know I will forever judge relationships based on how they compare to the dynamic of these three. Also, why are there so few throuples in trad publishing? More, I say! More!

I thought I would have disliked the pacing and court politics of this book, as well as the fact much of it was spent in a singular location, but I didn't really feel that way. And yet something felt... off. It's hard to pin down exactly what it was. Perhaps the ending? It did feel rushed, given the slower pace of everything else. I'm torn between not wanting to drag things on and explain everyone's future steps and also wanting all the details of the courts' futures, Remy's decision(s), etc. It was vague with enough implication to be the end of the series but also open enough to leave room for a third book/novella. Part of me liked the ambiguity, the other part is greedy and wants more.

Overall, this book does an excellent job of balancing humor and tension with heavy topics (e.g. self-worth, loss of a parent, grief, survivor's guilt, etc.), which is a quick way to my heart.

I’m disappointed. I really really struggled with this book. I absolutely adored Sliver Under Nightfall. It was so perfectly balanced. It was in my top 10 for 2023. But this..I am so disappointed.

Court of Wanderers did not keep me engaged. I could see the vision and the intent, but the execution was terrible. The middle of the book just dragged on. I did not expect SO much world building in a sequel…in a duology.

There were times where the book felt rushed. Then it slowed WAY down for what reason? SO much dialogue and felt it lacked character building. I still just feel disappointed and like I could easily forget this book.

This ended up being a DNF @ 60% for me. I appreciate the chance to review the ARC. Thank you NetGalley & Saga Press

The first book in this series was amazing and this second book was no different, I was over the moon once I got accepted for this arc.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Court of Wanderer's was a great follow up to Silver Under Nightfall, I really loved every aspect of the sequel. The slang was toned down a bit so I could enjoy the dialogue more, and the characters gave me a bit more to be invested in. I love this modern take on vampires, it remains fresh & kept me invested. 3.75/5 Stars. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

From dialogue, the characters, to fight scenes, to love scenes, this book scratched all the right parts of my brain. I had high expectations after loving the first book, and this book far exceeded all expectations. It is a beautifully crafted continuation, and look into this lovable trios life. This story develops on a very deep level that leaves you thinking about it for hours. It was both simultaneously a quick read, but one that I ingested, fully, scared the even missing a drop of it. I greatly appreciate Simon & Schuster for giving me an advance reader copy.

Not as good as the first book (though I should have refreshed myself on that one).

The plot was just boring imo and bc of my qualms with the stuff below, I just felt very meh about the whole thing. There just didn’t feel like there were any stakes to the story.

I finally realized what bothered me about this series: there is no internal thoughts or monologues. These things are vital in developing character depth. The very little internal thoughts that Remy was even given was almost reserved to showcase how horny he was.
The writing is purely dialogue and narrating actions happening on page. We’re always told what other characters are feeling or what their personality is instead of using descriptions to actually DESCRIBE that emotion.

For example, there were a couple of times Remy would state personality traits of Lady Song or the emotion on her face, instead of maybe saying “her brows turned down and her lips pinched” for example to maybe showcase her displeasure.

If each character can blandly be summed up in 2 descriptions then I think that shows a lack of depth.

Remy: talkative and horny
Xiaodan: kind and horny
Malek: responsible and horny

…,and that’s basically it. See what I mean?

Also, not sure how you can make a vampire throuple plot boring but it was. No tension or cute relationship development happening. It was stagnant which should never be happening to anyone since characters and people are constantly growing and changing. Due to this the throuple just became really boring and I lost interest in them quickly.

I have no idea if there will be more in this series. It seems like the ending had solid closure.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

I absolutely loved Silver Under Nightfall and so when I saw Court of Wanderers available on NetGalley, I slammed that request button. Overall, the book was really good. The plot was well structured and kept me guessing, even if it did sag at some points. Part of that might have been reading it as an ebook. I tend to read fantasy (basically anything besides romance) as physical books which I swear I feel makes them go faster.

Remy is a great main character. He merges the worlds of vampire and human, which puts him at an ideal point for the story and world. While it doesn't detract from the story to only be from his POV, I will say I would have liked to see Xiaodan and Zidan as POV character too. I just think they're neat. It's been long enough since I read book one that I can't remember how the romance scenes were done. That said, with the rise of the romantasy genre, I was somewhat surprised to see the romance scenes were generally fade-to-black or lightly described. Part of it is the nature of the triad relationship that lends to the belief that the book will be, for lack of a better word, spicier. Personally, I prefer a heavier lean on the romance, and if that's your jam as well, just be prepared for that to be less of the case here.

Chupeco set up so many plot threads that I seriously wondered if they would be able to tie them all up in one book, but they did so well. I had all sorts of questions going in and they were basically all answered (at least, as answered as the characters could within the constraints of the world). All in all, the duology gets a thumbs up from me and I will definitely be recommending it to fantasy readers at work.

** This is a translated version of the original review, which was posted in Spanish**

Score: 3.4 Stars.

First of all, I want to thank Saga Press for the advanced copy of this novel.

Silver Under Nightfall was a book that surprised me in 2022. It is not very common to find a fantasy story with vampires, so I enjoyed each of its pages. On this occasion, A Court Of Wanderers does a good job as a sequel, expanding further the world and story created by Rin Chupeco.

All the elements I loved in the first book have been maintained in this sequel, which has reminded me of how much fun I had with “Silver Under Nightfall.” The characters continue to be one of the strongest factors in the novel, and the relationship between them is increasingly interesting. The team made up of Remy, Xiaodan and Malek, in addition to being curious, is very entertaining.

Furthermore, I enjoyed how we learn the deepest details of the vampire courts, all through the eyes of Remy who, as a human being and a vampire hunter, was completely ignorant on the subject. You really notice the work that Chupeco has put into building a world with a solid structure, avoiding details to hang unfinished.

I feel that the pace of this novel was much slower than the previous one. This made it a little difficult for me to move forward with it. Still, it is a very enjoyable story.

Anyway, I am happy to be able to continue with this series, Rin Chupeco is an author whose works have caught my attention, so I will probably be reading another of her books this year. I recommend “A Court of Wanderers” to fantasy readers who are looking for a story that involves vampires, a vampire hunter, a shady romance, and lots of action.

The second part of this duology felt like an improvement to me in some ways and a letdown in others. I certainly appreciated the author toning down that obnoxious made-up slang dialect that plagued the first book. And the concept of the vampire courts actually playing a role in this book grabbed my attention.

Unfortunately this book suffers from most of the same problems as the first one. It's a mess, frankly, in terms of plotting and character development and world development... and well, just everything. The lack of consistency from scene to scene is jarring. A particular example occurs just as Remy, Xiaodan, and Malekh are arriving at the temple. The only way to get inside is to dive under the lake and swim too far for a human to make it. Only vampires can swim fast enough to not drown. So, naturally, Malekh escorts Remy – drags? swims? - to the courts. Later people will simply come and go as they please. The vampires will offer the use of this temple to Remy's father and his army and there will be no mention of the logistics of this whatsoever. Both books are frequently hampered by this type of nonsense.

There were so many pieces of this story I wanted to know more about. I wanted to know more about a lot of things in the first book, but this one really felt like it added five new questions for any question it answered. It underutilized the creative ideas, such as the dream connection Remy had with his mother, which wasn't fully explored in favor of Malekh treating Remy like a baby some more.

I found the first half of the book much more compelling than the conclusion. All things considered, I still found this one a bit more enjoyable than the first book.

I wanted to love this book so much after Silver Under Nightfall was a 5 star read for me. However, I felt like a lot of what I loved from the first book didn’t carry over. The angst and chemistry between the characters felt like a complete 180, and the plot wasn’t exciting or attention gripping as it had been in the first book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun sequel! It was good to see Armiger Pendergast, Lord Malekh, and Lady Song again as they fight the Night Empress. There was much needed expansion on the world as Remy dives deeper into vampiric waters to meet with other vampire courts. While I was still confused on where we were in the world (a map would have been helpful), I liked how Chupeco added more details to the world. Sometimes the information was given fluidly, and other times felt like an info-dump. Silver Under Nightfall was a dark fantasy adventure, so the tonal shift in Court of Wanderers startled me. There were dark stakes, but it was more focused on Remy's emotional journey with his relationship to Xiaodan and Zidan, and his parents. His parents were quite a highlight for me in learning more about the world. My main gripe with this conclusion was the pacing. I had fun, but it took a while for the book to pick up in plot and ran really fast towards the end. Not a well-balanced paced book to me.

Overall, I liked this. This was a good conclusion.

Content Warnings: body horror, death, sexual content, violence, transphobia (minor), terminal illness (minor)

It's got sex, it's got blood, it's got heart, it's got found family, it's got vampire pigeons.

I absolutely loved my time with this duology-- a fun story about a dumpster himbo being whisked away by his two sexy vampire daddies as they gallivant to 4,972 castles on the backs of their skeletal (and lightning fast) helhests, smashing up zombvampire mutations as they go.

A Gothic Fantasy filled with romance, court intrigue, vampires, and the perfect amount of humor.
I absolutely loved Silver Under Nightfall and I love Court of Wanderers just as much. Not long after the first novel's events, Court of Wanderers has just as much action, romance, and tension as the first one. I love so many characters in this story, and I enjoyed seeing how the relationship between Remy, Malekh, and Xiaodan continued to evolve and deepen throughout the story. Court of Wanderers does move at a bit of a slower pace than the first novel, but this is far from a negative thing. There is so much more world-building in this story and I hope that Rin Chupeco writes more stories set in this fascinating world. I am sad that this series is only a duology but am very happy with how the story ends. Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I am so happy to read book two in this series . There is lack of gothic fantasy series right now and Rin just saved the day ! The political aspects were a little slow in this one but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thank you for the Arc.

This was a satisfying follow up to Rin Chupeco's previous book, with all the wit, action, and charm. I just love how the queer rep that started in book one takes on new depths here. I'd happily read more from this series.

3 Out of 5 Stars

Rin Chupeco is back with their Gothic, fantasy, queer vampire series in Court of Wanderers.

This book picks up right after Silver Under Nightfall, with Remy, Xiaodan, and Zidan making their way to the seat of Zidan’s court, Fata Morgana. Tensions are high in the group as Xiaodan recovers from her fight with the Night Empress, and Remy and Zidan process the fight in Aluria. Once the trio arrives at Fata Morgana, a familiar pattern falls between them. But with Xiaodan not back to her full strength and Remy having nightmares about the Night Empress, things cannot return to normal. While dealing with these new issues, the leaders of the eight courts arrange a meeting, and Remy must act as Xiaodan and Zidan’s human familiar in a new environment with different rules. The three navigate their relationship while dealing with murders and the growing threat of the Night Empress.

The second entry in Rin Chupeco’s Reaper series sees the return of the beloved characters from the first book.
However, this book does not contain the same level of fun and adventure. In the first installment, I wished for more information on the eight vampire courts, and boy, did they deliver in Court of Wanderers. Each of the courts – the ones that survived – appeared in this book, which resulted in a significant amount of politics. While I believe that it is necessary to have at least some politics in a fantasy book, it seems to drag on in this book.

Other than the slow-moving political discussions, this book is well-written. Chupeco does a great job of building his characters after the first book. The characters are the best part of this series, and I enjoy seeing how they evolve. They react believably to the situations they encounter, and I love how the main three lean on each other for support. The various locations of the vampire courts are also well done. I enjoyed seeing some of the seats of the courts. Chupeco compellingly shows how each setting fits the vampires who rule over the locations.

Although Court of Wanderers is not as fun as its predecessor, I still liked this book. The characters are well-written, and the fantasy world is fascinating. The book had some downsides, but the characters and queer relationship are delightful to read, and I would recommend this book to others.

I think I did this book a disservice by picking it up right after finishing an amazing 5/5 fantasy book. I felt like this sequel moved away from focusing on the characters and their arcs to just plot. I still really enjoyed all the characters and their relationships but all of that was developed in the first book and we didn’t get much more from them in this one. The plot too, this is where I thought maybe I shouldn’t have picked this book up after a super intense fantasy read because the stakes in this book felt underwhelming.  But overall, it was an enjoyable duology with a unique world and great representation.

After fighting the Rot, Remy, Malekh and Xaoidan work to bring the remaining vampire covens together to defeat the Night Empress. The story turns into betrayal after betrayal.

The story was engaging enough, I suppose, but nothing like the first book. The crew falling for each other in the first book was so engaging, I had a hard time putting it down. This one was much slower and not nearly as much spice. Hardly any on-page spice, mostly fade to black.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced copy of this book!