Sadly, the second part of the duology didn't work for me as much as the first one. The romance took too much of a page count, it went too deeply into a love triangle territory (I loved Slate's and Brenner's relationship the most, but to me, they read more like a family, not like potential lovers). The middle part of the book was too slow, I wished for the side quest to end sooner so we could get on with the main plot. And didn't like certain decisions made about the ending (

Spoiler

Circumstances about Brenner's death, "he has done too many bad things to be let to live, even though without his contributions we would be dead now", is one of my most hated tropes. It always feels like the author didn't know how to deal with morally grey characters so they take an easy way out.

).

That said, it was still a solid fantasy read. I won't rush to read the rest of the books in this world, but I don't regret picking this one up, there were many funny moments and I might reread my favorite parts of it one day.