I feel like this book was more frustrating than the first one. Lila is so hard to root for and she causes so many problems because of her recklessness. She literally knocks out an innocent man just to take his place in a magic tournament. It puts a huge burden on Alucard and the consequences were none of her concern when she acted. It’s insane to me how selfish she is. Meanwhile Kell is the opposite, he always thinks about the repercussions of his actions and how best to not upset anyone given whatever situation he’s in. Their “relationship” is so tumultuous I’m not sure if I should root for it or not!

This book centers around a magic tournament, Kell and Rhy dealing with the aftermath of their binding and Lila coming into her power. The tournament is where the climax occurs but the matches are not described in a way that makes them feel suspenseful or like that matter much. There were some surprise wins that I thought were interesting, but given the way they are written, I was not invested in the fights enough to care.

Kell and Rhy are brothers. This is firmly stated by them both so much in this book I feel as though the author really did not want people to ship them anymore.The first book does not mention it much, but every page seems to reiterate this fact. Meanwhile the entire cast acts like horny teenagers. Even Lila, who in the last book, was not interested in anything romantic. She was seemingly asexual, but now behaves much like the rest of the characters. Kell and Lila shippers rejoice, because there are some good moments for them. Rhy and Kell shippers be damned. The brothers have to deal with their link to one another and their back and forth makes the situation seem like it will be the main focus of the fiction. They should seek a way to remove their bond, but the story doesn’t take this route. The two are resigned to their fates being intertwined forever now.

Lila’s training is relegated to a few paragraphs of flashbacks here and there. This doesn’t really convince me that she learned how to control magic in the way she does. A more in-depth training-focused couple of chapters would help us see the rise to power she has, but alas that did not occur. Instead we heard whispers of her potential in book one, and now we see it. It’s not as fulfilling as it should have been because we didn’t see her achieve it.

Kell struggles a lot in this book and I feel for him. He doesn’t want to upset anyone, even if it’s to his own detriment. I relate to this heavily. The king and the citizens blame him for the Blackest Night, so now he’s looked at with fear and loathing. The king and queen blame him for Rhy dying and keep him on a short leash because of it. He goes through even more pain here and I hope he can find his own happiness soon. Kell is the best character in this series.

It seems like there are a lot of plot threads in this book that are tackled, and most are well thought-out. The way the king acts could be attributed to his newfound distrust of Kell, which makes sense as a whole, but they still feel egregious compared to what we saw of him before. Kell, Rhy and Lila all have compelling plotlines and struggles they deal with, though Lila’s lack of a thought process hurts my opinion of her character. There is a new king of white London and his story, along with his lackey, is mentioned here and there, but honestly feels shoehorned in. It didn’t seem to fit with the story that was being told. It would have made more sense to tie that storyline in more throughout this novel, but the sporadic chapters that are dedicated to it are relatively intriguing. I just wanted it to flow more naturally and really weave into the main plot. Lila took the spot of a competitor in the tournament pretty easily, why not have the white London king’s lackey do the same?

I did enjoy this book, despite my gripes. I hope the final book shapes this into a cohesive series, because as of now, the structure of the fiction leaves much to be desired. The characterization is really well done. I find myself relating to the struggles of Kell and shaking my head at the brashness of Lila. I feel the burden of perfection placed on Rhy and the power struggle for the white London king. The amount of pain these characters go through is ludicrous and if they don’t all get a happy ending I might riot. Looking forward to the last one!