I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

Winter’s Orbit was not on my radar at all until I heard it was going to be the Illumicrate pick about a year back, and I ended up requesting an ARC and absolutely adoring it. When I heard there was going to be a new book in the universe, I was ecstatic. Not only did I just love the characters and their relationship in Winter’s Orbit with my whole heart, the setting, and world was so incredibly interesting that I was excited to dive back in more and find out more.

I think it was an excellent idea to set this book in a different part of the world. It meant I didn’t have to struggle to remember too much from Winter’s Orbit (it has been a while, after all!), and it gave a new perspective on the same universe. It also means that this book can easily be read without having read Winter’s Orbit, which is always great in series like these. It means you can start wherever interests you most, and go further from there!

For those that have read Winter’s Orbit, I feel like I can safely say you will enjoy this one as well, even if this is definitely not just Winter’s Orbit 2.0. Tennal and Surit are very different from Kiem and Jainan (though there are some parallels that can be drawn between the characters + relationship dynamic!), but I found myself adoring them just as quickly. There’s also less romance in a sense, though the amount of pining more than makes up for it. Just everything about the characters and the way they interact is amazing, especially the banter.

I also really liked the plot in this book, and overall it feels a bit more memorable and important than the plot of Winter’s Orbit, as it seems to bring more of the universe and it’s workings into it, rather than an internal political plot. It also meant that we actually got a lot of new information about the world in this book, and I sincerely hope we get more books in this universe, so I can keep learning more. I also found the ‘magic’, or talents in humans that resulted from experimentation, especially interesting, and I feel like it added an extra layer of depth to the plot, the world, and the relationship between Tennal and Surit.

Overall, this book solidified my love of Maxwell’s writing and character building, and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!