“From your life came mine. I am but a verse inspired by your chorus, and I will follow you until the end, when the isle takes my bones and my name is nothing more than a remembrance on a headstone, next to yours.”

On an enchanted isle at the whims of the spirits, two clans - the East and the West, hold a tenuous ceasefire, but are far from at peace. When Jack returns to Cadence after a decade away at the order of the heiress, he is instantly swept back into a life that no longer feels familiar. After a number of girls disappear from their side of Cadence, Jack must partner with his childhood frenemy, Adaira, the East's heiress. With his musical abilities and her authority, they must unravel the mystery behind the disappearances and find the girls before it is too late.

I enjoyed this book because I love stories that centre on music, especially when it is a key part of the magic system. Rebecca Ross also nailed an atmosphere was somehow a perfect mix of cozy and spooky.

I did wish that Jack and Adaira had taken up more of the POV time, as their storyline was my favourite part of the book, and I was less invested in the other POVs.

The ending sets up excellently for the sequel which I definitely will be reading.

Wow, wow wow! What an incredible time this book was, I simply could not put it down. I loved the outback setting and the premise that just draws you in. Billie is such an endearing and loveable character to follow as she uncovers the mystery of what happened to her mother. All three perspectives - Billie, the diary flashback chapters of her mother Anna, and Dulcie aka Lady Bushranger were all equally strong and engaging. This story was fast paced, while still making you care for the 3 leads and their different experiences as women during this time period.

I have nothing but praise to give this book.

I think this sequel adequately wrapped up the duology. Similar to the first book, the first half of Brighter Than Nine was a lot of set up so that the story could pick up in the final half. Rui has always been the character I cared about the most in this duology. I think her love story with Zizi was sweet and I like their trio friendship with Yiran — especially since he acknowledged his bratty ways, had less of a self-pitying narrative, and got more of backstory in this one. Overall, I was happy with the conclusion to their character arcs. I still have the same complaint that the side characters are so unremarkable to me, the only exception being Nikai, but he was mostly absent in this book.

I’m not normally a fan of flashbacks to previous lifetimes, but I thought it worked well here and added to the story.

Once again, I was a big fan of the audiobook narrator, she’s such a personal favourite of mine.

Thank you very kindly to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.