I don't know if this book suffered from 2nd-book-in-a-series syndrome, but I didn't enjoy it as much I loved the 1st one. The main reason was the I didn't enjoy the whole gladiator setting, it had too much fighting for my liking and the relationship wasn't something I was actually interested in.

Let's start from the beginning. I think this book made me realize that Mia isn't as badass as everyone says she is. Instead of only having Mr Kindly to drink her fear, now she has Eclipse too, so nothing affects her as much as normal people. She does all this crazy stunts and battles, but she's not scared. She doesn't do anything despite her fear, which would have made her a badass heroine, so what's the point?

The gladiator setting was so cool at first but it quickly became tedious for me. We were going from one fight to the next and you could tell that Mia would either win or make something up to aid her cause. It felt a tiny bit predictable and after a while, I was a bit tired of reading about fights and training sequences.

Now let's talk about the relationship. It was unexpected for me, but I didn't really care for it? I didn't mind it, I didn't like it, it was just there and to be honest, I think the plot could move forward without it complicating matters.

The plot twist was interesting, but I have another thing to say about Mia's plans. How do we know that her father's coup was the right thing to do? How do we know Scaeva is the bad guy here? We've read bits and pieces about him being a tyrant, but how is Mia's cause actually justified?

Anyway, this is an interesting book, one I wouldn't reread, as opposed to the 1st one, which I might pick up again in the future! Sometime in 2021 I will (hopefully) read the 3rd and final book, to see how this story concludes!