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.
After enjoying the first book in this series, Children of Blood and Bone, I decided to pick the second one up while the events of the first were still fresh in my memory. I found the first book engaging if slightly long, with brilliant world-building and an accessible writing style.
Going into the second book, I decided to pick this up on audio. I read the first chunk (around 20%) of Children of Blood and Bone as an audiobook, and I found it engaging and followed the story well. But with Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I found myself switching off almost instantly.
“We’re the children of the gods.” I lift my chin.
Some of the negatives I felt in the first book continued with the second, mainly the relationships between the main characters feeling quite juvenile, and increasingly hormonal throughout this second instalment. The scenes I do actually remember about this book a couple of weeks after finishing it are actually these kinds of scenes, and they feel quite disconnected from the rest of the story.
I felt the story was quite disjointed and disconnected overall, and doesn’t flow very well. To this day, immediately after reading, and even during reading this book, I could not tell you the plot. The first book seemed to follow quite a destined storyline and ended on a cliffhanger, but this one seems to be a mishmash of the fallout from the first book. I’m not even sure how it ended anymore.
“If someone’s running away, it’s not going to be us.”
Overall, this was definitely a disappointment after the complex and intricate fantasy of the first book, of which I could only pick a few (more personal) grievances. I doubt I’ll be continuing with the series at this point.
★★
2 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
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