I absolutely adored Sky Without Stars, full of twists, characters that stay with you, and a world so full of visualization that you can picture it when you shut your eyes. So to say I was exciting for Between Burning Worlds is an understatement!

While Chatine was the focus in Sky Without Stars, Marcellus is the star here. Having rebelled from his family and now aligned the Vangarde, Marcellus is faced with pulling the rose colored glasses off and looking at the world of Laterre with clear eyes. And holy shit, is it going to go down in this book! Chatine is left mining while imprisoned, which doesn’t dampen her snark or resolve. Alouette finds her world turned upside down and holds the world in her hands. In this story, we also meet the charismatic Etienne and now my ships are all a damn mess.

A gritty, distinct world ripe for revolution, Laterre is home to warring bodies fighting for the same ending. On one side, you have the Vangarde, open to more peaceful means should their leader be freed. A nice sentiment that the Red Scar deeply disagrees with, as evidenced by their bombings. As an outsider looking in, it’s hard to pick a side. Is peaceful opposition an option when someone has murdered the prince? Are bombings going to unite the people or scare them into the arms of the government promising upward mobility?

Some of the standout moments in this story involve a monarch chess piece, a stiletto heel, and a twitchy finger. It was constant twists and turns through the story, world, and character building and I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND how Jess and Jo have managed to create a universe that I so desperately need to turn into a series (no one movie is going to do it here).

Somehow Jess and Jo make 688 pages (or nearly 24 hours, if you’re an audio reader like me) breeze by and leave you begging for more like you’re living in the frets. I can’t wait to see where Alouette takes this story (especially after her big reveal)!