actual rating 2.5 ⭐

what a slog to get to the meaty part of the action! the cliffhanger from Book 1 to the first chapters of Book 2 really was a let down; I was excited! we were learning things! than bam, back to school Violence and her squad went, which felt, odd?? How many more matches do i need to read about? The necessary world building didn't feel as seamlessly knit into the scenes in this one, and I really wanted to get to the goods.

Part II picked up significantly, so I'm absolutely still intrigued enough to keep reading (the ending, as expected, was also o.O ! ! ! ! )

the best parts for me remain violent and tairn's relationship. Dragon who is both cranky at you yet deeply invested in keeping you alive and your enemies roasted is GREAT. More of this please! I loved learning more about Andarna (the teenage groot of this book lmao) and overall I want more dragons less basgiath. i hope we are done with school from here on out.

Xaden also went from pretty badass to basically a rhysander ripoff to me in this book (until the end) and i got tired of "just give me those three little words" "just ask me the questions." i'm still rooting for these two, and i did appreciate their chemistry. so horny for people always about to di3.

the audio, well i won't listen to another one of these. the narrator ended up being okay for me but these are SO long and it took me over a month to listen due to my time. I think that kept dragging me out of the propulsive parts of the action because i kept having to pause. It was okay to listen to while grinding away on stardew valley though!

overall, fine, not great, but readable and with enough to keep me wanting to know what happens next.