A really great sequel to Ocean’s Godori that completes each main characters arc in a satisfying way.
This book picks up right where the first one left off, after a very helpful recap on the characters from the last book. It continues the main conflict and introduces a few more characters. I really appreciated that the main antagonist of the story was fleshed out. It really helped pull things together. The main romance is also continued and I thought the way it wrapped up was nice, but the love triangle bit went on for just a bit too long. I really enjoyed how to the conflict wrapped up and how the stakes were raised more from the last book.
It was really great to dive back into this story and serves as a great conclusion.

It was wonderful to come back to the colorful world created by Elaine Cho - I have missed the cast, and it was great to spend more time with this queer gang in this queer world. It gets cheesy at times, for sure, but it's so earnest that it resonates with me, and I felt that the book and the series was fulfilling about everything it set out to do. It has a great entertainment value, and I envisage many rereads for the duology.

EArc provided by NetGalley
Von's little recap at the start is something which should be present in more books
Once this is published I will be acquiring a copy
I can't heap enough praise upon this series, it scratches the itch in my gay lil heart. The queer rep combined with said queer people not all being white, interracial relationships not being white/other. This is a book that makes me feel seen, despite the utter idiocy of some characters. I'm looking at you Ocean/Sasani angst.
The ending was A** and I felt fulfilled by it, if we are blessed by a sequel I'll be reading if not I'll be rereading.

Thank you to Zando and Net Galley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I tell you I’ve been checking NetGalley everyday for WEEKS, waiting to be able to request this one. I usually read my arcs in order of archive date, but I immediately gobbled this one up.

I want to start by saying that I did enjoy this book for the most part. It was fun like the first book was fun. And I do think it was a good ending. I liked all the romance (*through gritted teeth* even if Ocean and Haven didn’t kiss…).

Unfortunately for me, I felt like this book kind of stumbled over the finish line.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It really emphasized both its own flaws and the flaws of the first book. It was overly info dumpy at times and the end battle was so cheesy. Usually cheesy is fine (yes, the power of friendship works on me), but this entered the territory of ‘oh my god just reading this is embarrassing me.’

In my first review I talked about Dae and how I hoped she’d get an arc. And I guess she does? It wasn’t very interesting, though. Same with most characters. The most we get of most of Phoenix’s crew is an explanation of their backstory from another character (which contributes to how clunky and info dumpy everything feels). Other than Gemini and Phoenix, they just aren’t real to me.

Same problem with the Romaja (again why isn’t it Hangul so it immediately translates?) that I had with the first book. It’s just that fanfiction-y logic that adding a different language into the text is a good idea when all it does is make it harder to read. There also wasn’t a glossary in this book like there was in the first one, which they may be adding later, but meant I couldn’t see what things meant. The Korean I’m familiar with is admittedly very small, mostly limited to honorifics and familial terms, so everything else went over my head.

I enjoyed this book from an entertainment perspective, but not from a technical perspective. The plot itself flowed well, but it was full of awkward dialogue and worldbuilding. The characters mostly failed to have real arcs (they are who they started as for the most part). And overall, I felt that this book was kind of a weak conclusion to the story.

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Thank you to NetGalley and to Zando for the ARC of Teo's Durumi by Elaine U. Cho.

For new readers: You definitely need to read Ocean's Godori before reading this one to understand any part of the story.

I absolutely loved the first book in this duology, Ocean's Godori, and after the whopper of a cliffhanger it ended on, it was great to dive right back in with Teo's Durumi, which picks up immediately where the first book left off. Teo is intent upon unmasking the man posing as his brother and revealing his family's killers, but first he, Ocean, Phoenix and the rest of the crew need to make a plan to set things right while Corvus continues his plan for universal chaos and revenge.

Cho's setting is so unique and Teo's Durumi sparkles with the same dazzling effects of her created space opera universe from Ocean's Godori. The way Cho writes the culture of the world is so accessible, and she gives enough context when writing about Korea or about religion or other aspects of her universe that readers can infer and learn from each sentence (and then want to find a Korean restaurant, ASAP).

I would pair this as a more inventive and mature colleague to L.M. Sagas's Ambit's Run duology, given how both have such a strong focus on relationship building within the story itself, while still being such entertaining space operas. I feel like it ends in a really solid place, and readers will be very pleased with how full circle the story comes.

I removed a star for two reasons, but I still have the highest enjoyment rating of the duology and the highest respect for Cho. The first reason was that the pacing is a lot slower in this book. It isn't until after the halfway mark that the team begins to make their moves, so a lot of the action feels packed into the final 25%. I wish the story were more balanced. I think the high, high focus on relationship building / romance in the first half, while very cute and fun for the characters, didn't lend itself to carrying the story's action forward in an even way. The second is because I wasn't quite sure how to understand Corvus's aims with the technology he has created. It seemed disjointed to connect his actions to how they would actually support his worldview - unless that worldview now is just mass death? It felt a bit out of order with what Teo, Ocean, and the rest of the crew believe they are fighting for - he seems to have completely switched gears.

Also, to whomever is designing the colors for this series --- these are so stunningly beautiful. I hope they drive so many readers to pick up the books because the story is even better.