Ok I’ve got to admit: this book kinda lost me in places. I loved the first book but this one felt like it took too long in places and I kept wondering why I still had like 10 hours to go on the audio book (though I will admit that maybe listening to this changed how I experienced the book). Once I got to the last third it drew me in and kept me finally.

The prose was good but did not have the consistent spellbinding quality that the previous book did. The things that bothered me last book still bother me about this book including a lack of nuance in regard to Orthodox customs and some anachronisms or things that didn’t feel quite Russian.

Despite this, I liked the deepening relationships and weaving in additional fairy tales and mythology. I can probably only honestly give this book 3.5 stars but will still read the last book.

Side note: shoutout to the audiobook narrator, Kathleen Gati, because, while there are a fee glaring mistakes, overall she does a much better job than I would have expected with all the names and places. I was really worried about listening to these on audio book but she does a really good job.