Another Adesuwa banger. This is one of my favorite authors to read when I’m in a slump, her writing is engaging and funny and really feels like gisting with your galpals.

Friends to lovers is ho-hum to me. I like it but I’m never that fluttery about it. The side characters in this book were fire though! My favorite character was Bioye, and I’m curious to see if we’ll get a Nonso/Ogonna storyline too.

Tola, you were a 0/10 character. Very silly dude, honestly. Mtchew

Also Zinna, will you keep quiet in the mighty name of whomever you serve? Wowww, I actually ran away from my book at one point 😂😂

A thrilling conclusion to the Empire trilogy. Mara of the Acoma has easily become one of those characters I will be making reference to for the rest of my life. I can't wait to recommend these books to my female friends especially, reading about Mara felt so empowering!

I typically love political intrigue in my books, but dare I say it was too much in this book? I still enjoyed it, but compared to the first installment, SOTE took me almost thrice as long to finish (it is a longer book by no small amount, but still).

My favourite character this time was Arakasi! I love the dependable servant archetype thing he had going on.

Yay to women in male-dominated fields! 🙌🏾

There were moments in this book that had me physically cringing because of everything the main character had to endure. But wow, what an incredible female lead.

It felt almost serendipitous that I read this around International Women’s Day. All of Mara’s victories gave me a much-needed ego boost. ✨

The main character is actually SUUUUPER annoying lool. The book is 3 stars for me cos I felt like I honestly was just over her antics for the most part. I felt like I needed to keep reminding myself that I am an adult and she’s a kid cos her decision-making was just #NotIt.

Also, why did it always feel like race was only mentioned as a way to like make the character feel as though she was “woke”? Absolutely no qualms about dating this white boy who is a member of the secret fraternity in a school you’ve just joined (because by the second week mind you, she called him her boyfriend), no qualms about joining the fraternity, either (she joined immediately and without a second thought, might i add) but OMG, the cries of my ancestors. Your ancestors don’t care when you’re frolicking with a white man? Okay.

I just feel like the twist at the end was also very juvenile. I hate to feel like rates this book as mid because I really wanted to like it, and it’s only three stars because I can tell why other people do. I guess.