Oh, this was absolutely delightful — even better than the first volume! If you know me, you probably know already that I'm a massive sucker for tournaments, trials, etc., and learning that the infamous Night of Knives is a set of trials custom-built for that contestant? Sign me the hell up. (Sign me up for reading about it, not, y'know, participating. Just to be clear.)

I'm so thoroughly enjoying this time of getting to know Maxim better and learning how he was shaped into the proud and powerful King we know from the Shades novels, and now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go devour the final volume in this trilogy.

✨ Representation: the members of the Maresh family are Black; multiple BIPOC side characters; one on-page sapphic side character