Holy shit. This was INCREDIBLE.
"And because for all her supposed cleverness, she couldn't see that the dashing hero who saved her was actually its monster."

WOW. OH WOW. Where do I even begin? This book was INCREDIBLE. I enjoyed it SO MUCH MORE than the first installment and it hooked me from the very beginning. The plot, the pacing, the characters, the reveals... all so amazing. I'm SO happy that I continued on with the series, and if the finale is nearly as good as this, this trilogy will go down as one of my all-time favorites!

I'll start by addressing a couple worries I had going into this book. I was apprehensive about having Dara's POV thrown into the mix, because I was seriously not a fan of his in the first book, but it actually was fine. His chapters are sparse and even when he does have a POV come up, they were interesting enough to hold my focus, and it was valuable to get to know Manizheh. One thing that bothered me a bit about City of Brass was the constant time jumps, but although a lot of time was covered in this book (not to MENTION the five-year jump at the beginning), it didn't bother me as much! I felt that I missed less with these small skips and they were handled better.

"You don't stop fighting a war just because you're losing battles, Alizayd. You change tactics."

I was much more invested in the worldbuilding this time around. I felt I had such a better grip on the politics and hierarchies that I was able to enjoy the world so much more. The plot was super thrilling and kept me entertained throughout. There were so many fun interactions and shocking twists that I enjoyed, and the characters were even more magical. Side characters took a much more prominent role. I LOVED Zaynab in this and it was so great to see more interaction between the three royal siblings! Muntadhir… wow. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions with him throughout this book, but I'm SUPER thrilled by where his storyline went! Ghassan was as terrible as ever, I loved meeting Hatset and getting to see her and Ali's relationship. Ali's two new friends were fun, and I even loved getting to see more of Vizaresh, which was a shocking surprise!

OK, on to my favorite part, the ROMANCEEEEEEE! If you read my COB review, you'll know how much I love and adore Nahri and Ali. I love their friendship a lot, but I'm still holding out a very strong hope that they'll end up together at the end of all this. There wasn't much romance in this, since they're still pretty firmly in kinda-sorta-friendship territory, but their relationship grew so much and I was so frickin' pleased with how early their reunion happened and that they spend most of the book around each other. It was so fun and stressful and painful to see their interactions with the thought of Muntadhir in the background, but I was also pleasantly surprised with how Nahri and Muntadhir's relationship grew as well! I think Chakraborty has such a firm grasp on her characters and I love how they're portrayed. Nahri's strength is admirable, Ali's beliefs are unshakable (even tho that boy has a SERIOUS DEATH WISH, LIKE KNOW WHEN TO SHUT UP, MY DUDE), and Muntadhir's last few chapters were LEGENDARY. THE LEGEND JUMPED OUT. I just love them all so much. I still don't like Dara much, but he's still a pretty interesting character and I am really looking forward to see where his story ends up!

So yeah, THANK GOD I gave this sequel the benefit of the doubt because I loved it SO MUCH. I'm already gearing up to preorder Empire of Gold so I can have it ASAP. YAY FOR DISCOVERING NEW SERIES TO LOVE!