2.5

I didn’t know this was a sequel when I first started reading it. As the author is narrating the story, in an interesting break the fourth wall kind of way, we are notified of “the first time around”.

Before I continued, I did do a quick search and sure enough, this can be read as a stand alone.

Did I enjoy this book? Kind of. It was ok. Im not a huge fan of mysteries, but I feel like if you love a good “who done it” murder mystery and are ready to solve this with the crumbs the narrator leaves along the way, you might enjoy this more than me.

I just didn’t like the writing style necessarily and by the time the murder was solved, I wasn’t really shocked even though I had no idea.

If you like murder mysteries with a bit of a stereotypical cast of quirky characters, you may love this one.

I’m still having fun with this series. I’m a bit annoyed that this did not have the fame other dystopians had during the dystopian craze. This sci-fi dystopian has all the components of a great story and is executed well.

I can strongly say that book two did not suffer from book two syndrome and I’ve already started book 3.

I am not rating this book as it is non-fiction.

I hate that this time in history exists. I hate that it has always existed and even is making a resurgence.

Highly recommend, if not only for its important themes, but to reignite the passion in you to stand up for what is right.

I wanted to LOVE this book. It had all the makings of a book I’d enjoy, but it just read a bit surface level for me.

What I enjoyed about this book is the overall premise, the characters and the initiation of the settings. What I didn’t enjoy is that it all felt a bit hesitant, like the author wasn’t going ALL in and was brushing the surface, because they were too distracted by trying to create banter and angst between out main characters.

I’m giving this a generous 3 stars as I wanted to have more of a push and pull from the characters, I feel like both gave up and just accepted they weren’t actually foes. I wanted the magic system to be more fleshed out. I wanted the remote setting to be more mystical and magical.

I would still read the sequel,l just to see if any of this issues are tweaked in the next one.