Well, this book didn’t make me feel weak in the knees like Falling Kingdoms, but I still enjoyed it. I’m a little disappointed, but I had a bad feeling this might be more on the filler side. It did have some pretty swoon worthy moments, which completely captivated me. It’s still very hard for me to ignore the Game of Thrones aspects. Especially with this book introducing Melisandre Melenia.

This book picks right back up where Falling Kingdoms left off. King Gaius now rules all three kingdoms. Magnus is still battling with who he really is versus what his horrible father wants him to be. Cleo is still trying to figure out how to reclaim her kingdom. Jonas now has a somewhat strong group of fifty-ish rebels, who are willing to risk their lives trying to bring down The King. We are introduced to a new female character, who I absolutely adored, named Lysandra. She’s amazing with a bow, and has a very strong voice in what the rebels should be doing. Her village was destroyed, with her family as well, when they refused to help with the building of a road into the Forbidden Forest.

Confession time: I do not like Lucia. I didn’t love her in Falling Kingdoms, but in this book I just down-right disliked her. Like, she acts like her brother’s infatuation is disgusting, but she is constantly leading him on. Then she chooses to be all catty towards Cleo. It’s like, have some freakin’ compassion. The poor girl just lost her family, friend, boyfriend, home, and kingdom. Then this little moody girl chooses to have no empathy. I know she tries to redeem herself at the end, but it was mostly Cleo extending the olive branch, not bratty Lucia. I’m completely, 100%, without a doubt, shipping Cleo and Magnus. I seriously reverted back into a sixteen year old gushing teen when they still had to get married. Then that kiss later on in the book? Like, please sign me up for all of that. I was a little disappointed with the wedding night scene, but that’s just because I haven’t read much YA fantasy. I wish I could reread that night, but wrote in a adult fantasy perspective. God, I’m such a pervert.

We do get much bigger glimpses of The Watchers in this book. It seems like each Watcher has a personal favorite, who they watch more than anyone else. Sometimes intervening and giving information away that they shouldn’t. The sanctuary scenes were kind of underwhelming for me. I found myself struggling not to skim.

I’ve read a lot of books in my life, like, a whole lot of books, and out of all those books I’ve developed unhealthy fangirl obsessions over two guys. The first is Adrian Ivashkov from (originally) The Vampire Academy Series. I rooted for him that whole freaking series and I only continued on with Bloodlines because of my love for him. The next is Barrons from The Fever Series, because…. Well, he’s Barrons. He also owns a pretty sweet bookstore. If you haven’t read those books (at least the first five), read them and you too will experience the magic that is Jericho Barrons. I’m rambling, but the point I’m trying to make is that Magnus Damora is becoming a new unhealthy obsession for me. Seriously, I’m a smitten kitten over this fictional boy. All these guys are totally dark haired, brooding, bad guy at the start, then struggling to be a good guy, type of guy. If you want me to swoon over your book’s male protagonist the combination is that, apparently.

Look at me, giving myself a personal intervention over this series! I’m off to make my unhealthy obsession worse with Gathering Darkness.