This one was definitely more enjoyable than the first. I think going into it with lower expectations definitely helped.

This book is both plot- and character-driven, but I still find the plot to be my favourite. I liked seeing who was planning what and how they were going about to get what they wanted. Politics and court intrigue, deception and lies... I gravitate towards that stuff. I liked seeing what Mariko was up to and how she was going about gaining trust from everyone at the palace, including Raiden. I also liked seeing Kanako and Raiden's POVs. The only problem I had with this book is that it's super introspective. All the characters spend paragraphs thinking between talking, and it gets to a point where it's a bit unrealistic, cause no one can pause a conversation for five minutes to think before coming up with a perfect response. All the character development happens on page and while you're in the character's mind, as they reflect about their past and present, and put all the pieces together. I would have preferred to see something more physical than internal.

The romance wasn't super in-your-face in this one. I will admit that I totally thought Tsuneoki loved Okami as a friend/brother, not in the other way lol but I'm oblivious when it comes to this stuff. Still, I feel a little sad for Tsuneoki and just hope Okami isn't the kind of guy to abandon his best friend now that he has Mariko.

I wish we got more Yumi in this. The beginning of this book started off great with a Yumi POV, and while we got a couple others, I honestly just want more. I could read a whole series about her and never get bored.

Raidan's character was the one that surprised me the most. I started off hating him, but his character development was done so well. It was believable and realistic, and I actually really enjoyed it. Roku, on the other hand, descended into madness and freaked me out. His death at the end though was so anticlimactic. I was not expecting him to die from being pushed down some stairs. Like that's a pretty pathetic way to die, and he deserved something worse than that.

Kenshin's character though...he really annoyed me. I think Renee Ahdieh tried to redeem him after the first book, but just made him worse? And then she tried to make him not guilty by erasing parts of his memory and having Kanako control him. He still hit Mariko though. And she was actually scared of her own brother. And while he did help Okami escape and fight with him at the end, I just hate him overall. He's selfish and spoiled and his principles are skewed. I think Amaya honestly deserves better than him.

The epilogue left all of this up in the air. We don't see what happens to Kenshin or Mariko's family. Nothing about Amaya. Also nothing about Tsuneoki. I wish we got more. The ending seemed super rushed. I was expecting a huge battle scene or some confrontation, but things sort of ended quietly? Roku dies rather unspectacularly. Kanako dies in a similar way. We never find out if the others know she was behind all of this. And I really didn't like how Mariko liked her and saw herself in her? It was just meh and it was over so quickly I didn't get to process it that well.