This sequel did not hit for me the same way A Dawn of Onyx did. I found the plot a bit meandering, did not care for the unnecessary Love Triangle, and overall Arwen and Kane just didn’t have the same spark as the first book. The vibes were there, but not enough to elevate it to a must-read for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read this early!

🌶️🌶️

This series continues to be one that I devour. The plot is absolutely amazing, and has me constantly wondering what is going to happen next. It is full of adventure and romance and all the issues that come with both of those, especially combined. This was a slow burn of a romance, because of the ending of the first book. This has me waiting impatiently for the next one to come out so that I can see how this plays out.

Arwen hasn’t felt much and is walking around in a fog. It’s not every day you slaughter a ton of people in battle, lose your mother, find out the man you love betrayed you and flee for your life with survivors to a kingdom that has never been breached. Kane withheld the walking death sentence she is under, because some prophecy decided she is the only one that can destroy his father. But she could never doom the whole realm to death because she wants to live, so she has to continue to work beside him to find the weapon she is supposed to use. Maybe she will finally feel something again when she does.

5 ⭐️

A great sequel to a amazing first book. A Promise of Peridot expanded the world so much, and it was great to learn more about their world.
Arwen and Kane are literally some of my favourite main characters ever.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for allowing me to read this book

This series had me hooked since book 1 and this delivered just as much as the first one!! It's fast paced, intriguing, waring kingdoms, AND the romance and spice were CHEF'S KISS!!! I need book 3 immediately !!

this is the sequel to A Dawn of Onyx, and while it took me a bit to get into, it was GOOD. once I was hooked, I flew through this. unfortunately Arwen was insufferable for most of this which is a bummer because I remember really liking her in the first. I loved Fedrik, he kind of gave me Nikolai vibes? this ended on a wild note and I can’t wait to finish out the series. thanks to @netgalley for this gifted digital copy!

Thank you to Kate Golden and the publishers for gifting me this ARC! I could not wait for the next installment in the Sacred Stones Series! This is one of my favorite series from the past few years

I received an ARC copy of this book.
The whole “mmc and fmc are fighting bc the fmc won’t forgive him” trope is so overdone right now. HOWEVER. Once I got past like 30% I was sooooo on board again. Arwen is such a good fmc and Kane is a master of banter and annoying the fmc. I absolutely adored the first book, honestly one of my faves. But this book really expanded upon their characters and it had me hoooooooooked. I am so excited for the next book because that ending was brutal. Thank you Kate for writing such a good story!

A sophomore slump, if I’ve ever seen one.

While this Romantasy series is definitely more romance than fantasy, this installment left me wanting more on both fronts.

But I’m invested in our couple, so I’ll be finishing out the trilogy!

I enjoyed this book, but honestly it was a bit of a letdown compared to A Dawn Of Onyx. Onyx blew me away. Peridot was good, don’t get me wrong, but it was just lackluster. It drug a bit. I found it a bit predictable. Quite simply, it wasn’t memorable.
I haven’t lost faith in the series, though.
Kate Golden is a fantastic new author with a ton of promise and I’m excited to follow her journey.

Y'all put some RESPECT on my girl Kate Golden's name.

It is so easy to quickly judge someone by inexperience or from where they started. I have done it before. But, I am not pulling your leg when I tell you this book was better than half of the romanatsy books on the market.

Dawn of Onyx (book #1) was a good starter book to a romatasy series that keeps you intrigued, has lovable characters, and a cool gothic setting, with not too complicated of a magical system or hierarchy. Just the right amount. It fell a little flat at the end of the first book for me, but Promise of Peridot DELIVERED and made up for that.

Yes, romantasys are all starting to blend together at this point, but this one stood out to me. The plot and setting are so addicting (like I was reading at red lights & staying up very late), and the writing is well done, thought out, and deliberate. There was literally something happening one after another, but they all had their moment and their time and nothing felt rushed, and at the same time nothing felt too long. It was so satisfying. It rides the line perfectly between a classic romatasy book everyone can love with your favorite tropes, but also able to stand apart with its uniqueness and originality.

If you set aside your growing prejudices against romantasy books in general you can truly see how well written this was. Here is one quote that has weirdly stuck with me because I can picture it so vividly and I think it is a great example of what I am speaking about, "Purple shafts of sunset highlighted little floating specks of dust hovering in the room's still atmosphere and painted her angular face in warm contour."

These books are definitely a slow burn and that can sometimes lead to frustration because we readers just want the love interests to go to quick therapy and get it over with. And thank goodness the miscommunication trope wasn't used to keep the slow burn afloat. They vocally dueled it out when they weren't doing something and they both had their points and qualms. But the slow development between Arwen and Kane when they started to really understand each other and themselves was so soft and sweet. After so much angst and hardness between them, it filled my heart to see them show softness towards each other. 🥺

I am so excited to read the arc of the final installment, A Reign of Rose. I will keep y'all updated.

Until next time, xoxo,
Abigail

I am absolutely loving this series! The Sacred Stones series may very well send me into a slump!
I am frustrated with Arwen, her dismissal of her feelings of Kane while keeping her own secrets, but I'm hoping for a happily ever after for not only Kane and Arwen, but for all of the sweet members of their little group. I look forward to book 3, I have no doubt it will be yet another 5 star read!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the digital review copy 💕

I absolutely devoured the first book and truly appreciated the world building and character development that Kate set us up with. Leading into this book, I felt like the story kind of dragged. It almost felt like nothing really happened until the very end which obviously leaves me salivating for book 3 but also not fulfilled, but I will say the fight in the rain scene sold me. I really enjoyed seeing Arwen and kanes relationship Throughout the book

I know that this was a book two in a series and therefore everything cannot be wrapped up or concluded easily. However, I was really disappointed with how the "couple" in this book never had their time. Not even for a little while. I needed more romance interactions considering this is a romantasy book. I loved book one and will continue with the series to see what happens, but this one was not my favorite.

I have thoroughly been enjoying this trilogy and recently got the third book ARC in NetGalley and cannot wait to read!! I loved BOOK 1 (A Dawn of Onyx), but this A Promise of Peridot truly kicked it up a notched!

I LOVE each character and the twist & turns they go through! I’m also a huge fan of enemies to lovers…so a trope with friends to lovers to enemies to lovers had me kicking my feet in the air!

This was so well done and the spicy scenes were *chefs kiss*!!

I think the overall structure of the story was there, the pacing was slow or overly focused on one place of situation was too long.

Plus I think there were some plot holes - how is it that Arwen can use her lighte without using her life force….yet never can?? It feels like a mistake and it took me out of the story many times.

The slow burn romance was there again (why??) but had a satisfying development.

I just didn’t enjoy this sequel as much as book 1.

It’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read! I really love storyline but in the end author lost me with that outrageous cliffhanger.

I am grateful that I was provided an eARC by publisher through NetGalley, this review is purely my own opinion.

We picked up everything from book 1! Arwen is facing every secret aftermath of book one’s cliffhanger. She was semi insufferable. I mean I understand it’s a big deal what she learned but as a sunshine hopeful character she became “omg poor me” and fully pity party on. She literally experienced so much grief and uncovered so much secrets but her pity party dragged 3/4 book. It was hard to read. Other than I love her character development and acceptance who she became in the end. She was incredible she did what she gotta do but she portrayed as such a powerful character but I didn’t see any power in that end. It was too damn easy in the end.

Kane agh I love Kane so much his character development also went from bloodthirsty king to someone else. I mean he maybe needed to be that King in this book because I was like Is Kane that much weak!? The power the author portrayed isn’t a matching with his actions or non actions. I don’t wanna read his grief in the next book because I was so sad about how he was struggling so much in the beginning of this book when it came to Arwen. I am so sad how we left him.

Mari and Griffin need to get their shit together already because wtf is going on with Griffin why is he so scared!? We gotta learn more about him! Honestly Mari’s journey is my favorite one because she actually moves through pretty challenging things without whining.

The overall pilot was alright I mean love triangle, unsuccessful attempts to get the object even if it served a purpose but it was lacking that anxiety for me. And then that prison!? C’mon Kane’s characteristics qualities suddenly gone lol

Reading about Lazarus is going to be uncomfortable he is disgusting idk how am I gonna handle his character 🤮

Overall it is fine! Pacing was so slow in the beginning then took over pretty quickly. I think author writes pretty well. Everything flows seemingly! But her characters power seems to be missing whole a lot.

Lthank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for a review

✨ ”a light like yours cannot be dampened by circumstance.”✨

I ran straight to this book after the first one🏃🏼‍♀️
This series has been so fun to read, and the ANGSTTTT in this book especially. 😚🤌🏼

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Books 1 & 2 have both been 5 stars for me and a huge gauge of that for me is if I think about the book when I’m not actively reading it and YES. I am. Its an action filled steamy romantasy 💕🔥
I would also like book 3 immediately.

Arwen has really grown on me because honestly I, too, have no idea what’s going on ever. And her freaking out and getting depressed about the prophecy is so real of her. 🤘🏼😔

152 days until a reign of rose!

Slooooow burn but honestly the payoff was worth it…..eventually. This was angsty and action-packed and the banter between Kane and Arwen was so good. I think this world is so interesting and book 2 was definitely even better than book 1.

The cliffhangers in this series are going to make me lose my mind 😅 (in a good way)

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley for the review copy. Decision to read/review was my own. Opinion is my own.

I love this series. Kate keeps pulling me in. Can’t wait for the next one!! Book 1 left off horribly in the sense that I was an emotional mess. And this one was another emotional ride for me.

Watching the change/growth in the MMC and the ways Kane is now also my book husband.

The fast pace of this story kept me on my toes. I love that it picked right up where the first one left off. I don't want to give away spoilers, but if you love romantasy books, this series is a must. Also, that cliffhanger.......