I feel like there is a lot of potential in this series, so I'm still excited to see where book 3 goes. Hopefully with the new setting and new MC (although she's an existing character in this duet) the next arc can start fresh again.

I did feel a lot of emotion during this book, I did cry towards the end (even if I didn't think it was an incredibly strong ending) and there were a lot of parts I liked. But the pacing and weird plot holes were enough to keep me from finishing it quickly, I just simply wasn't very into reading it

"oh that might actually be my niece". Like never once tried reaching out??? And then as a reader we interact with this aunt character for like 1 chapter and her whole point is "here's a bracelet that was your mom's. Oh wow that bracelet was actually the key you've been searching for! Good luck!"

Then in book 2 she has an aunt 2 towns over? An aunt who knew she existed, who would have reasonably known after her sister and family were killed that the vampire king suddenly had a new human "pet" that he's keeping in the castle, and she just never connected those dots and thought

And then I felt like some of the new characters were very under developed or just thrown in to continue the plot. Oraya's entire motivation in book 1 was to become powerful enough to go to her hometown and search for any remaining family, who then would have been killed during the events of book 1

There were several times where the writing kept taking me out of the story. What do you mean this villain guy can just guess plans or events and is 100% right all the time? What do you mean she's sneaking in these undiscovered tunnels and that just happens to be the very night they're discovered?

The first book had very strict structure and pacing, they are taking part of this battle royale style trial, so it's the trials with periods of rest in between. This book had a much looser plot, which I felt had a negative impact on the pacing and my general enjoyment. Spoilers below

SOOOOO good! I read this for my high school AP English class, and it struck me so powerfully. That class was in 2012 and I still have my copy, with my original highlights from my assignment I've read it probably 6 or 7 times. It's amazing.

I would love to give feedback!

Also the ending was very good, I love when I'm able to guess the twist but then there's something extra that I wasn't expecting at all, which is exactly what happened here. Our love interest is great, if a little one-dimensional, but I expect book two will develop him much more!

I do think that there is a growing trope in fantasy right now of "oh let's have some rival Kingdoms and they're fighting for control" so I do wish the setting was more creative, but I really enjoyed how the vampires were portrayed, so it gets a pass.

Current goal is 40 books in 2026! But I work full-time and am a full-time student as well, so I fear that goal may be somewhat ambitious