A humongous thank you to Orbit Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. 

Well, we are back in the world of footnotes. Oh and Davi, too I guess and her hot orc girlfriend Tsav. The heroine with the least of aspirations and drive for glory has just been crowned, you guessed it, the Dark Lord. The leader of what will be a genocide of evil humans. Yay? Mind you this is after she finds out that a) she’s not the first person from Earth to have landed here and b) they’re not exactly interested in her leadership skills. After a brief yet footnote-laden recap, we are off to the town of Shithole. Where everything is brown. Every. Thing. Is. Brown. And Davi has a plan, er, set of objectives. 

This one overall hits different. The first book was filled with frenetic energy that was essentially Davi. The frustration of starting over repeatedly, of trying to navigate something that after hundreds of years didn’t feel real, it made sense to be flippant. But it’s different now. After the loop only set her back a day, she’s coming to terms with the permanence of her actions and their consequences. We get to see her mature a bit and really lean into being a leader that has to make hard decisions. 

The ending is the duology is exactly what you might think it is. I’m not mad at it either. It really could only end this way. Surprisingly touching, to be honest. I’ll definitely be pre-ordering a copy of this book!

Also. Octopanzer. *snort* That is all.