2019 fantasy, second of its trilogy. Everleigh Blair killed the
usurper and took the throne of Bellona… but her problems are not even
slightly over.
Well, it looks as though we're setting one kingdom to rights per
book. This time Evie visits Andvari, where her One True Love is merely
the king's bastard son, and everyone seems to be choosing between love
and politics in their matches… except the assassins sent by the king
of Morta, which I'm guessing will be the third book's kingdom.
(There's a map, but it's not much use; it only shows Andvari, and
there's only one relevant location in Andvari, the royal palace in
the capital. The first book has the general arrangement.)
As with the first book, it's all very predictable. Evie is (mostly)
smart and (always) good-hearted, and never forgets to be kind to this
world's equivalent of old ladies struggling along the road who will
turn out to be good witches later. Emotional lows are balanced by
emotional highs. The setting is still that odd mix of undefined and
over-detailed. (This time it wasn't the technology but the botany that
threw me; they have blackberry sangria… and red-pepper-crusted steak
and butternut squash and potatoes and garlic and cinnamon and
kiwifruit. So we've got plants spanning from the Americas to China… I
mean, sure, it's a fantasy world, and we don't know what climate zones
or trade patterns are like. It just seems weirdly specific.)
Perhaps things are a little less exciting than in book one; perhaps
the emotional manipulations felt a bit heavy-handed ("I have to
pretend to be engaged to your legitimate brother, and I'm not going to
tell you it's a pretence because I don't trust you to react
convincingly" seems to me as though it could be eased by "so let's
also pretend we're having an affair"); perhaps it's because we only
really get the one setting, Evie at court in Andvari, rather than
having the transition from palace to gladiator life and back. This one
didn't grab me the way book one did.
But the writing still works for me, if by getting out of the way and
not annoying me with errors more than by soaring heights of prose; and
I like the people and feel engaged with their stories.
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