The Republic of Salt returns to the story of Naftaly, Toba (Bet), and their mortal and Mazik companions as La Caceria grows in power, threatening war and destruction. The last book focused on the city of Rimon. This one brings readers to the city of Zayit, which is similarly vibrant, bursting with magic, mystery, intrigue, and danger.

Even as the stakes get higher in this book, it's still the characters that are the real highlight. Everyone, including the side characters, is precious and needs to be protected at all costs. Asmel is sidelined a little bit, which is disappointing, but he's busy losing his memory, so it's not his fault. Aside from him, every character is such a pleasure to read about. The developing dynamic between Toba and Tsifra is extremely compelling. Elena and the old woman are just as fun and sassy as they were in The Pomegranate Gate. Obviously Barsilay and Naftali are super cute. Barsilay's own personal conflict about kingship is interesting, and it's refreshing to see him refuse to buy into the idea (that shows up in a lot of fantasy) about how the right monarch can make monarchy good. At this point, it's not particularly subversive for a fantasy book to take a stance against monarchy, but this one does do a good job of showing how tempting crowning kings can be, even when it goes against everyone's values.

Another highlight of the book is the worldbuilding. The Jewish and Kabbalistic inspiration is obviously a treat, but the magic system itself is also interesting. It's quirky and trippy, and it never takes itself too seriously. Although it's not always a lighthearted book, the narration is still full of subtle humor. Overall this series is proving to be an absolute gem.

An excellent continuation of the Mirror Realm Cycle!

Left stranded on separate sides of the gate after a harrowing encounter with La Caceria, Toba, Naftaly, and their comrades must continue on their quest to restore the Luz Gate and stop Tarses once and for all. It's a race against time as Tarses continues his machinations and begins to move on the city of Zayit. New alliances will form, bonds will be tested, and each of our heroes will find themselves pushed to their breaking points. But the decisions ahead are not easy and just one wrong move could lead to disaster.

The Republic of Salt sees a deepening of the mirrored worlds of humans and maziks alike and a development to the characters that really pushes the narrative forward. Just as colorful and descriptive as the first installment of the Mirror Realm Cycle, The Republic of Salt does not disappoint. Admittedly, it's been a while since I read The Pomegranate Gate, so I had some trouble remembering what had happened previously but that did not stop my enjoyment of this novel.

Toba and Naftaly remain compelling as the main characters and the cast of supporting characters that surrounds them is as strong as ever. I truly enjoyed getting to know the Courser better in this installment and coming to know the Peregrine. Character motivations are made clearer for several of the parties involved and we really begin to see how high the stakes are. Their world is coming to an end, there is no question about it.

The pacing of this installment is considerably slower in the beginning but once it does pick up it is a race to the finish line. The entire last portion of the novel is a constant confrontation fraught with adrenaline that climaxes in a frustratingly perfect cliff hanger. I cannot wait to continue this series and see how everything resolves. There are still so many decisions to make, so many things that could go wrong. I'm on the edge of my seat and I will remain so until I finally read the conclusion of this epic tale.

The Republic of Salt is the enthralling sequel to The Pomegranate Gate. After an intense clash with La Caceria, Toba and Asmel are trapped on one side of the Gate, while Naftaly, Barsilay, Elena and the old woman are trapped on the other. They encounter enemies old and new, make new allies, see enemies become allies and back again, all while desperately fighting for survival and sanity.

I was as engrossed by this book as I was by the first one. While it took me a little while to get back into the setting, the characters and plot were deeply compelling. The whole thing had a constant sense of being borne along on a raft atop a gushing river, not quite in control but doing your best to steer towards safety.

I adore each of the characters and the romances. There were some genuinely nailbiting moments, as each of the characters was pushed to their limits. I'm already strapped in and waiting for the next installment.

This was a great continuation of the Mirror Realm series, but this review is going to be a bit hard because there were things that I LOVED, and a few elements that I didn’t. 😕

First the positives. I thought the expansion of the world was done very well with the addition of Zayit. As a fantasy version of Venice, I really liked that Kaplan drew historical elements from the real life city while still making it feel different and new. The character development for all the ones introduced in the first book was wonderful to see and I really enjoyed seeing a more reckless Toba (even though she irked me at times), a more insightful side of Naftaly, and the wonderful expanse of the old woman’s banter with the group. 😂

The things I didn’t particularly like were the romances between Toba and Asmel and Naftaly and Barsilay. It just felt groomish to me or for someone who really enjoys a weird 600-something-year-old magical being who loves hitting on a freshly turned 20-something year-old. Just made me feel a bit weird reading it half the time. 🤢

But really though, this should be on your radar regardless of the romance. The world building, the magic system, hell the food magic done here? Come prepared with snacks. I’m really excited to see where Kaplan will go with the third book, but also really hopes she restates the plots again because man I was slightly confused here and there. 😅

Big thank you goes out to Erewhon Books and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review. Also, @lookma.i.read and I are starting a petition (now that our buddy read is over) to have a spinoff or a novella of the old woman and her background. She’s too boss bitch to NOT have an origin story!! ❤️

Publication date : October 22!!

Overall: 3.75/5 ⭐️

3 Reasons to Read:

- Kaplan has an original feeling & fascinating hold in fantasy. She’s a “new-er voice” & I’d argue with my heavy fantasy lovers, this series needs to be in their TBR’s.

- This magic system was made for foodies. My goodness- I’m so hungry after reading this. Lentil soup, anyone?

- The world building kinda gives me Inception, the movie, x mythology-vibes My favorite were the mud animals & the carnivore horses…. But really, lots interesting gems at play here that Kaplan builds.

3 Things to Consider…

- Is it weird to love the characters growth and dialogue but still dislike their decisions for romance? I need to believe and root for the love. And there was plenty of romance… but I felt like this extent was almost not needed. But note, it’s closed door and not spicy.

- I don’t know when we’ll see updates for the next book, but I have no idea what comes next. And though I’ll ponder this for months, if incomplete series drive you nuts, take note.

- In Book 1, I had an audio/kindle mix and I missed having that option in book two. (Don’t get me wrong @netgalley & Kensington Publishing- I am forever grateful for the ARC on this- I didn’t realized I had become attached to the narrator’s style in the heavier parts of the book).


3.75/5 Rounded Up because I’m excited to watch Kaplan’s catalog grow.

DNF around 20%

I had some mixed feelings about The Pomegranate Tree but was interested in reading on with this series. Unfortunately the start of this second book was not at all compelling to me. I got 20% in and there was barely any progression. Adding on to that is that we follow a lot of different point of views. We literally switch every scene, from one group to another. It would have helped this book had it focused more on a few central characters like Toba and Navalny and only occasionally used other characters if absolutely nessecary.

I loved jumping back into this world and mythology, and especially back with these characters. They're multi-faceted, and their interactions and relationships with one another are fascinating to see how they develop, especially Toba Bet (her developing relationships include herself).

(That's not to say she's my favourite, Barsilay still exists so . . . )

The magic system and world continues to take very direct inspiration from Jewish folklore, which is lovely and unique. This book was more of a road novel in that our characters were traveling for much of the book, and while I'll get to the plot in a moment, the format did give more glimpses of the world itself, which I loved.

However, having so much of the story be the different groups traveling did make the story seem a bit meandering and very much fall into the middle book trope of moving pieces into place for the grand finale.

I don't doubt that the finale will indeed be grand. We have fascinating world building, intriguing magic and lore, and absolutely compelling characters with stakes. There's so much to this series, that to be quite honest, this book did get by a bit on the goodwill built up from the first instalment when it comes to things like plot and character development. But sometimes, that's still enough to have a good time.

Thank you to the publisher, Erewhon Books, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Well loved the writing style, liked the humour and liked the fantasy elements. I haven’t read the first instalment so that might have impacted my experience. I didn’t quite bond with the characters and the travelling part was perhaps a little long. I will read the first instalment as it gets great reviews. Thank you to the author. Thank you to # NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I felt that the characters took a back seat in this book. There was so much happening in the book that the characters felt flat. I also felt that the first third of the book was really slow and boring while they were traveling.


Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

The Republic of Salt
by Ariel Kaplan
Pub Date: Oct 22 2024

After a near-disastrous confrontation with La Caceria, Toba and Asmel are trapped on the human side of the gate, pursued by the Courser and a possessed Inquisitor. In the Mazik world, Naftaly’s visions are getting worse, predicting the prosperous gate city of Zayit in flames and overrun by La Caceria. Zayit is notorious for its trade in salt, a substance toxic to the near-immortal Maziks; if the Cacador can control the salt, he will be nearly unstoppable. But the stolen killstone, the key to the Cacador’s destruction, could eliminate the threat—if only Barsilay could find and use it.

Deadly allies and even more dangerous bargains might be the only path to resist La Caceria’s ruthless conquest of both the mortal world and the Maziks’, but the cost is steep and the threat is near. A twisty, clever entry in The Mirror Realm Cycle, The Republic of Salt asks what personal morals weigh in the face of widespread danger and how best to care for one another.

4/5

Kicking off a slower pace than its predecessor, but aided by the momentum from its chaotic conclusion, The Republic of Salt brings further context to the mirrored mortal and mazik realms, on the brink of war with La Caceria. The Gate city of Zayit is predicted to burn unless the Cacador’s conquest can be brought to a halt, and Zayit’s salt trade could be the key. Deviating from book one, The Republic of Salt features a variety of perspectives across the realms like scattered pieces within the mirror fracturing and mending against an inevitable destruction. My favorite of these continued character arcs is certainly Toba’s. A buchuk of the original Toba now dead, Toba Bet struggles with her identity in the face of her creator’s beheading and her being the one that remains with those memories and experiences. Despite this, Toba is steadfast in her way forward and finds an unlikely path in allying with her sister, Tsifra, the very person who killed her prime self. Connecting two realms and building up to an irrevocable confrontation, Kaplan’s sequel is as immersive as its first installment, providing further context to a wonderous fantasy series.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

There were so many things I really enjoyed about The Republic of Salt. The world is SO unique, which is something I adored in the first book, and the dynamics between the characters are so interesting—I particularly loved the relationship between the old woman and Naftaly. I also loved how Barsilay’s character was developed deeper.

However, I did feel the pacing lagged quite a lot, up to maybe 70% in. That being said, there were a couple small moments during those 70% that suddenly grabbed my attention, but they were mostly swarmed by long odd stretches where my attention drifted, which I found unfortunate because I really liked the whole premise and world. I feel it might also have something to do with the overall writing style, which was not particularly visceral and probably contributed to reduced immersion for me.

Overall though, I really appreciated how different this series has been compared to more formulaic stories (whether good or bad)!

I read the Pomegranate Gate a few months ago and immediately requested this book on Netgalley so I could find out what happened next. I was super excited to be approved. To my utter dismay I found out this is a trilogy not a duology so now I'm gonna be waiting for the third book. These books end on major cliffhangers and continue from where the last one left off (which I like, but it makes for a hard wait for the next book to come out).

I absolutely love this series. Those who follow me know I am Jewish and love reading Jewish books, I also love fae stories. I'm not a big fantasy reader but I've always had a weakness for fae. It's so cool how this series is a Jewish take on a fae fantasy novel and I think it works really well.

I found this second book a little bit slower than the first one but I still really liked it. I love how each character feels so different and multi faceted. I especially love Elena and the old woman, which is cool because I often have trouble relating to elderly characters

I can not wait for the next book! I definitely recommend this series!! Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy on Netgalley.

DNF - Despite all the "previously" front matter and the infodumping, it takes a while to untangle the plot and the characters just didn't make that worth all the work.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

3.5 stars

The sequel to “The Pomegranate Gate” is a more adventurous installment than the first, as Toba Bet and Asmel journey through the mortal world and Naftaly, Barsilay, Elena, and the old woman travel through the Mazik world. We also get to know the Courser better, with chapters from her perspective that are very exciting. This book is gorgeously written and takes us all over multiple worlds. I enjoyed Naftaly and Barsilay’s relationship, Elena being iconic, and Toba Bet and Asmel growing individually and together. It ended on a cliffhanger that’s already got me eager for book 3.

Welp.

The Republic of Salt was one of my most-anticipated sequels for this year, after I fell hard for the first book in the trilogy, The Pomegranate Gate.

Alas, middle-book syndrome definitely got this one.

Very little really happened in Republic until the last quarter or so – up until that point, most of the story just involves setting up pieces for that last quarter. And yes, that’s often how climaxes work, but I think the difference is that, in a good story, the setting up is interesting for its own sake as well. Whereas here, we were just passionlessly moving pieces around to get them into position for the finale.

The finale itself? Pretty great. Not perfect, not stunning, but great.

But this book is just under 600 pages long. Meaning I had to slog through a whole novel’s worth of pages to get to the pretty great stuff. It was exhausting and very, very boring. Certainly the sense of wonder that infused Pomegranate Gate is completely lacking here – it was all very pedantic, practical, trotting from one place to another, doing things that had to get done like ticking tasks off a check-list.

And there was so much telling-not-showing. As an example, from a worldbuilding perspective, learning that the Mazik have very few soldiers because they don’t like to fight (because they’re immortal) was really interesting, but I wish it had been conveyed to us in a more organic way rather than in an exposition-dump.

The lack of explanation around Mazik magic worked beautifully in Pomegranate Gate, where it contributed to the sense of wonder that I loved so much. But here, with a much more mundane-feeling story, it seemed misaligned; the wonder was gone, so an explanation felt needed. Which meant that having no grasp of how this magic worked or what its limits were felt hand-wavey at best. Why can Maziks create any food they please out of lentils, but not spices? In our world, hand-made items are of higher quality in terms of craft, and usually of materials too; Maziks prefer hand-made stuff to magic-made stuff, but there doesn’t seem to be any difference in quality, so why does the difference matter? And the whole thing with the Mirror – the idea that the two worlds copy or echo each other – felt very vague to me. That the characters didn’t really understand it either didn’t help – I kind of wondered why we needed the Mirror at all. It might have been better to pull the whole concept from the story; I’m pretty sure that even without the Mirror, everyone would still be doing things. There are enough other reasons to stop Tarses and so on that the Mirror felt very tacked-on.

I have no idea why the Ziz is important, and the urgency around rescuing it seemed to come out of nowhere, appearing really abruptly without explanation. Prior to that point, the Ziz was barely mentioned! Turn the page, and suddenly Toba’s obsessed with it. Was the arc missing some text?

Both the romances feel so tacked-on, as if even Kaplan doesn’t ship the characters. Yes, Toba started to feel some attraction Asmel in the previous book, but I thought it was mostly just physical, and I wasn’t expecting it to go anywhere, because what on earth (or off it) do they have in common? But nope, here, have a romance, and both they and Barsilay and Naftaly just…have zero chemistry. I didn’t feel their attraction, never mind romantic love. I wouldn’t be surprised if Barsilay and Naftaly, at least, break up by the end of the trilogy, because seriously, there’s nothing holding them together.

Tsfira was great, and I wish this book had been more focused on her – I think she and the Peregrine had the most interesting arcs in this book, which, while not a high bar, were still the only ones I was interested in. The Peregrine especially got almost no page-time, despite everything that was going on with her – really weird narrative choices were made here, I’ve no idea why you would focus on Naftaly and everyone instead of, you know, zooming in on the characters things are actually happening to.

And please don’t get me started on the whole time-loop-vision-thing that shaped the whole climax. Convoluted and pretty dumb, imo. No thank you.

I’m still going to read book three, because, you know, presumably it will have Many Exciting Things Happening as everything comes together. But I think Republic was way too long, focused on the wrong characters, and was so dull. There were some great ideas – the demon/s, the killstone, the Peregrine switching sides – but they were stretched to cover far more pages than they needed, and bogged down in endless zig-zagging as the characters went from point a to b to c with nothing happening.

It’s hard to believe that the person who wrote this also wrote Pomegranate Gate.

Honestly, this is a pretty damn solid second book in a trilogy that raises the stakes, makes a side character undergo a really neat existential reckoning with herself, and has a bunch of queer kids trying to find their way as they're being uprooted by the Inquisition and transitions in the magic world. Hell of a cliffhanger. In for the last book.

Disclaimer: I haven't read the first book. Its on hold at the library.

Starting with a race across the desert with potentially carnivorous horses. What a start. I am hooked despite the fact that I’m jumping in at book two. The relationship between the mc’s are entering trying to decipher everything behind the curve.

I love the historical context and the magic of this world. The mix of Judaism into things as well was a lovely touch. Very relatable for me anyways.

i absolutely loved the development we get from all the characters in this, as the second book in a trilogy (i believe) it really strengthens the character relationships and adds to the world!!

the story revolves around all the characters moving and working towards coming together at the end, which i really enjoyed as we explored new relationships as well as expanding on ones formed in the first book. because the book revolves around all this movement, it can feel slow at times and the pacing did drag a couple of times, but i still really enjoyed seeing the characters come together and be one big group at the end

we do also see more on the relationships within this, they are a subplot but they do help make the slower scenes feel like they have more significance, and i love barsilay and naftaly together

the world and magic in this are so cool, and i can’t wait to see how everything culminates in the final
book!