After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.
Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari’s right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy’s wrath.
With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.
Unfortunately, for me, this felt slow – and it took me a long time to really engage with this part. Overall, it seems to fit nicely into the series but this felt like a second-book setting pieces in play and preparing us for what comes next.
Splitting perspectives between Zelie, Amari and Inan I couldn’t help but feel as if so many scenes were repeated. Each seemed to get frustrated by someone else’s behaviour, then do something they knew would cause a problem but find a way to justify it to themselves.
There are growing issues with magic being used and this felt like the focus was on the political machinations of the monarchy.
A pleasant enough side-story with Zelie and Rouen, but it didn’t really seem to fit what had been set up in the first novel.
By the time we got to the end I can’t say I was surprised. Disappointed in Inan, and maybe there’s something we haven’t been told. The final scene suggests we’re going into some symbolic representation of slavery. I want to know how this develops but I’m not as desperate to read the next part as I was hoping I would be.