I definitely prefer the sequel to this duology than the first.
The relationships were way more realistic and natural in this installment than the previous, and I was actually able to feel for the characters this time around. Res especially was a high point because he's just the cutest little crow baby in all the land. I think it would have been more successful to have more scenes with Res in the last book, so we don't have to play catch up in this one since he's been in the series for such a short amount of time.
Moreover, I really like how Kalyn writes battle scenes. She's successful at creating a detailed scene for me to picture, and I think it's one of her strong suits as a writer. Those scenes, specifically at the end, were such a joy to read and picture. I don't think anybody would deny that her descriptions of Thia and Res in the sky aren't out of this world. You can feel the moments of peace when its just Thia and res, but when there's tension when they're flying- it's pungent.
To be honest, there needed to be a larger page count to this duology overall. The 350-ish count did not do this story justice. Res learns more about his abilities at the start and middle portions of this finale, and we just flickered over it as if it was not that important in the grand scheme of things. It was disappointing because Res was one of the shining lights to this duology, and I was sad that his development was stunted.
Overall, I think the weakest point to this story was the lack of world building. We didn't really have any of it in the first book, and Kalyn had to do a lot of info dumping in this installment, which was confusing in and of itself because she didn't give enough even then. The Sellas were sooo interesting, and I'm sad they were such a big part of this novel, but we still know/ saw little parts of their abilities/ folklore. It felt like a constant tease. I wish the Sella folklore had been a larger portion to the first book, so we, as readers, did not have to filter through/ understand these new characters/ villains in such a short amount of time.
We were left with more questions then answers.
I will certainly look into Kalyn's next books because she is a fantastic scene writer, and I'm hoping some of these issues I had could be resolved in future projects because she has a lot of talent.
I may come back to this review sometime because there's more I'd like to say, but here is the largest summary of my feelings post-reading that I could think of.
Thank you to SourceBooks for sending me an eARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.