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cozysquib 's review for:
The Night Prince
by Lauren Palphreyman
The Night Prince by Lauren Palphreyman
In with a fizzle, out with a bang.
As much as I devoured and adored book one, book two... kind of limped out of the gate.
The Wolf King gave me everything I wanted, tension, high stakes, romantic tension, and the kind of messy love triangle that keeps you up way too late flipping pages. So I went into The Night Prince expecting to spiral a little. I wanted the angst. The drama. The indecision and confusion. What I got instead was... the honeymoon phase... And not the fun kind.
Which, sure. I’m happy the FMC made her choice (at the end of book one, mind you), and she’s surviving the fallout from that cliffhanger ending. But I missed the back-and-forth, the emotional tug-of-war, the spark. That little bit of chaos that keeps you kicking your feet and rereading lines like they’re love notes.
Unfortunately, the first half of this book leans hard into the “let’s not talk about our problems” trope. Miscommunication, withheld information, and some painfully obvious foreshadowing that has you going “just say it already” for chapters on end. And while I’m always here for a good mystery, this wasn’t mysterious so much as mildly frustrating. To be totally honest, I am not a fan of the “everyone knows what’s going on except the main character” story telling either. Especially when the clues are practically screaming from the page. The tension wasn’t cutting it. The pacing lagged. And I found myself checking how far in I was a bit too often.
But then, THEN, we hit the final 30%. Suddenly, the story remembered who she was.
Everything kicked into high gear. The plot snapped into place. The secrets dropped, the stakes spiked, and I was on the edge of my seat like I’d just shotgunned an energy drink. I binged the rest of it in a single sitting and finally got the drama and momentum I’d been craving.
Will I keep reading the series? Absolutely.
Will I recommend it? Yes, especially if you liked book one.
Is this sequel stronger than its predecessor? Not really... but when it hits, it hits.
In with a fizzle, out with a bang.
As much as I devoured and adored book one, book two... kind of limped out of the gate.
The Wolf King gave me everything I wanted, tension, high stakes, romantic tension, and the kind of messy love triangle that keeps you up way too late flipping pages. So I went into The Night Prince expecting to spiral a little. I wanted the angst. The drama. The indecision and confusion. What I got instead was... the honeymoon phase... And not the fun kind.
Which, sure. I’m happy the FMC made her choice (at the end of book one, mind you), and she’s surviving the fallout from that cliffhanger ending. But I missed the back-and-forth, the emotional tug-of-war, the spark. That little bit of chaos that keeps you kicking your feet and rereading lines like they’re love notes.
Unfortunately, the first half of this book leans hard into the “let’s not talk about our problems” trope. Miscommunication, withheld information, and some painfully obvious foreshadowing that has you going “just say it already” for chapters on end. And while I’m always here for a good mystery, this wasn’t mysterious so much as mildly frustrating. To be totally honest, I am not a fan of the “everyone knows what’s going on except the main character” story telling either. Especially when the clues are practically screaming from the page. The tension wasn’t cutting it. The pacing lagged. And I found myself checking how far in I was a bit too often.
But then, THEN, we hit the final 30%. Suddenly, the story remembered who she was.
Everything kicked into high gear. The plot snapped into place. The secrets dropped, the stakes spiked, and I was on the edge of my seat like I’d just shotgunned an energy drink. I binged the rest of it in a single sitting and finally got the drama and momentum I’d been craving.
Will I keep reading the series? Absolutely.
Will I recommend it? Yes, especially if you liked book one.
Is this sequel stronger than its predecessor? Not really... but when it hits, it hits.