I know I say it every time, but Robin is literally the greatest fantasy writer I've ever read. Each time I open her next book, I'm instantly gripped by her glorious storytelling, reading on in wonderment at the ease by which her characters seem to leap off the page, straight into my heart.

Truly amazed at how she continues to weave the golden threads of the Realm of the Elderlings into the next book, into the next series, while never letting up in the consistent quality of the story at hand.

This story owns my heart, and the first book was maybe one of my favourite reads of the decade so far… but I sadly can’t ignore all the issues I had with this sequel 🥲

The split perspectives took me away from the immersion far more than I would have liked, and the pacing was pretty chaotic - especially with the amount of big plot-relevant events that happened off-page.

Nevertheless, I care deeply about these characters and respect how ambitious this book was in all the threads it tried to weave together.

You best believe I am sat for the next book in the series 🙂‍↕️

I have no intention of being objective with this review - I frankly had THE best time reading this book after watching the TV adaptation loooool

Was it the most skillfully crafted piece of literature I have ever come across? No.

Was it the most enjoyable and easily consummable book I’ve read in months? Probably!

The show directly borrows SO many lines of dialogue from the book that reading this felt like getting a behind-the-scenes insight into how the main characters felt during each scene.

10/10 would recommend for anyone who has also developed an unhealthy obsession with the show x