I really enjoyed the first book in this duology, Spin the Dawn, but it's sequel didn't fully live up to the first book, for me.

Honestly, I was super hyped for book 2 after the events of the first book. I love when books involve demons, especially when it's because the main character is slowly turning into one, and so this book seemed entirely more my jam than the first (which I already loved!) Instead, I found the execution lacking, and while I still loved the writing and the world (a LOT), I felt like I lost my connection to Maia in this book, and was less interested in the plot because of it.

A lot of my issues with this one came from the repetitive cycle that Maia seemed to grow through when battling her demon. It clearly wasn't something she could tackle alone (she's not really skilled or knowledgeable in magic, she doesn't know a lot about demons, etc etc.), yet she seemed entirely convinced that she had to face it alone. Normally, I get this in MCs, but Maia's resolve in this decision to fight her inner demon (literally) alone wavered so much it got annoying. There were many moments where she acquiesced, let someone in to help her, only to suddenly change her mind in the next chapter. This wavering resolve also bled into her solo plan for handling the demon as well. She seemed to constantly shift between being certain she could keep the demon from taking over to being completely ready and willing to just give up. It was frustrating to read at points because of both of these reasons, as I never knew for sure which attitude Maia would have at a given moment. Additionally, her isolation for most of the book (due to her wanting to handle this alone), only made these shifts more obvious to the reader, since we mainly spent time with Maia in her head, rather than getting lots of dialogue to break up inner monologues.

I also found the overall plot week, at least compared to the first book. I loved the competition that bled into a journey to collect these mystical objects in the first book, but I felt like the second book lost a lot of structure compared to the first. This is also partially due to Maia's wavering desires, but the story felt a lot less consistent overall, since the goals were far less clear. Maia has a single goal in mind, to keep her kingdom united and at peace, but the way to do this constantly shifts, and sometimes Maia loses site of this entirely and decides she's just going to give herself up to the demon and become the guardian of the forgotten isles instead. It meant that the middle of the book, which consisted of a journey, continuously had different destinations. On top of that, I found the war scenes lackluster in the beginning and end of the books, as they felt shallow and unrealistic at points. It felt thrown in almost, with not enough attention paid to battle strategy and research at points. (I also partially blame my notice of this aspect on the fact that I've just finished The Poppy War series, which has extremely well-done politics, war, and battle scenes. This means my judgment of those same scenes in this series might be a bit more harsh because my mind made a more direct comparison between the two). Additionally, setting and world was my favorite thing in the first book, and I felt like I lost a lot of that here as well. I didn't have a good a picture at times of the areas that Maia was moving through.

Still, even with these complaints, I did enjoy this series overall and I love the world. Maia as an overall character has such a strong heart and is so good as a person, and I love that about her. I loved the closing scenes of this book a LOT, both for what it meant for Maia and the impact it had on the story overall. I also really loved that fashion and magic played such a strong role in this story and were never overshadowed by the power of the sword or other weapons, Maia was never made weak because she chose scissors as her weapon instead of blade. The world overall is so lush as well, and I can definitely see more series being written in this setting (so many lands to explore! all with different ideas of magic!!) The magic system was another plus too, it felt extremely unique and I enjoyed the role it played in the story. Overall, while I'm mildly disappointed by the sequel, I still like this series overall, and can't wait to see what Lim writes next!