Maybe it’s down to the fact that I retained not much of what had happened, nor the emotion I had tied to the first book—but I failed to connect to this beyond thinking the worldbuilding and characters are a step above the typical modern fantasy I’ve attempted. I even read a chapter catch-up on the first book to see if that would help, which did prompt me to remember some of the beats that I particularly liked. I just couldn’t get invested this time around. Maybe some time in the future I’ll re read them back to back and see how they hit at that time.