Warmaidens is the second installment in the Gravemaidens duology. I was a big fan of the first book and the amount of action it contained. I was really looking forward to seeing how the story continued.

Kelly Coon's writing is fun and descriptive, creating a great atmosphere with world-building that is concise, but effective. I love the use of the Egyptian influences. This installment is not quite as action-packed and does carry a little more political movement than the first. The feeling of the book is a little dark and tense. There is a lot of conflict on different fronts that really adds complexity and makes the story take a lot of twists and turns.

The characters are full-bodied and interact well, though there is some circling to the plot as the characters resist change and choices that will encourage forward movement in the plot. There were a lot of side quests that distracted from the main goal and dragged down the pacing just a little bit. However, I very much enjoyed the character interactions that resulted from these endeavors. There is some great relationship building and some difficult situations that force the protagonist to become more mature in her decisions. Kammani is intelligent and fierce and I loved her. She is independent and works to protect herself as well as others, but she has to learn to balance her instinct and conflict to make wise decision.

The ending turned out well and I like that everything was resolved in a reasonable way. There weren't any moments where it felt overly convenient and there weren't loose ends that left me unfulfilled. There was a little corniness in one of the end scenes that felt excessively chummy, but I gave it a pass since I really did enjoy the writing for the grand majority of the book.

This duology was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what else Kelly Coon has up her sleeve.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*