First I shall start by saying that I am so glad that I finally made myself read this duology. I have been a fan of C.J. for so many years now. And her books are always amazing. I had been so curious and excited about this series. I'm sad that I did not love these books. But I'm glad that I read them, as I did enjoy them.
I am giving this sequel three stars as well. There were several parts that I loved. But there was too little of it. And there were more parts that I found a bit boring and a bit weird. Yet I found this final book to be exciting at times and I found the ending to be great. I truly enjoyed reading the final moments of this story.
I shall try my best to write a shorter review of this second book. Although I may end up writing too much, as always. This book begins where the first one ended. Charis is on the run after the sea monsters, the Rakuuna, invaded her country and killed her mother and her father too. And so many others. It hurt my heart to read about, as her father was so sweet. Sigh. In this book it is mostly about Charis going to a different kingdom across the sea to find allies, trying to take her kingdom back. How she learns about a way to hurt the Rakuuna. How she ends up having to be captured by them, to have any kind of hope about saving her people. There is much going on in this book. I liked learning about the new places. I liked the basilisk cave. Wanted more of that.
There was so much happening in this book. And I may have written way too much about it all below. And yet I'm not going to share much about the plot. I must say that it was all a bit too political for me. I wanted more fantasy. More romance. More action. This book was more quiet. More about planning than actually doing anything. Which was a little boring to me. Yet it was a little fascinating too, how they tried to figure everything out. Though they were a bit slow, ha. I wish there had been less time jumps and more scenes.
I do not know how to talk about the romance. It takes almost half the book before Charis begins to forgive Tal. And that bothered me a lot, how long she took. How she keeps being angry with him, when I felt like she shouldn't be. She is always thinking about how he lit up a light inside her, and how that is now gone. Found that whole thing to be a little bit silly. And how she always thinks about how he betrayed her. Sigh. And yet. I did want them together. But I found their romance a little silly and too little yet too much as well.
I wish I had loved the romance more. But I felt like it was a little badly described still. I wanted more from it all. I wanted more cute gestures. Not just him touching her at times and her getting all warm because of it. I wanted more of everything, I guess. I also felt like maybe he loved her a bit too much, ha. Just wanted to believe in their romance more. And yet. I loved them together. And I did want them together. But there was too little focus on the actual romance part of their romance. Hmph. How rude. I needed much more.
A little more about the friendships. At first we see more of Nalani. And I adorec her and thought she and Charis were great friends. Then she shows up again at the end of the book and she had changed much in about one week. It seemed a little overdone to me. But even so. I adored her. And her brother, Holland. He do have some funny moments. And was in this book a whole lot more. But I also felt like he was a bit too much at times, with the whole defending thing. To me it was a little bit weird and overdone, in a way.
We see a tiny bit more of the other nobles from Charis's court, when she returns home near the end of the book. I did not like them at all. There was her cousin, Ferris. He was still a jerk. And he was not any better in this second book. Her guard, Rueben, was more in this second book too. But I felt like he barely said anything. He was just there in the background. There was also a new betrayal in this one. And it was so very obvious. How Charis found out about it was just fully silly and she should have been discovered.
There was just a few things that bothered me about this book. It is often mentioned how her guards are hunting for threats with their eyes. It got a little comical for me, haha. Charis also very obviously have an eating disorder. And I felt like it was dealt with poorly. She almost never ate and it is mentioned often. She was skinny and sickly. She was better at times, but still. I wish more had been done about it. I also failed to see how she was actually vicious. She was just hurt and broken and soft, but never actually a badass.
And that is something I wish we had gotten to see more of. There was always mentions of her now dead mother, and how she was such a cold and deadly queen. And how Charis is just like her. But all she does is speak. Where she supposedly makes everyone believe her and be scared of her and does as she tells them. I wish we had gotten to see her actually be vicious and cold and do something. But no. Charis was more soft and careful. But then. I loved that about her. I really did. Charis was amazing just as she was.
What I found to be all kinds of interesting were the sea monsters, the Rakuuna. I so wish there had been more of them. More about where they lived and how they spent all their time. They have now taken over Calera, having killed the queen and so many others. We learn why they did so. They had a good reason, I think. I liked learning that they were sick and needed medicine. I hated how Charis and the others hurt them at times, with a poison. I felt like the sea monsters were just misunderstood, haha. And I liked them.
I have to be honest and say that the covers are a little misleading. It made me think the books would take place underwater. Or close to water at least. But being on the ocean is such a small part of these books. And nothing underwater at all. So I was a bit disappointed, haha. Should have just been a crown, I think, nothing about the water. More about Charis and her kingdom. And I very much do not like that font. Ack. And yet. The covers are stunning in a way. and the story was still awesome, even with the covers, haha.
Return of the Vengeful Queen was an exciting final book in a great duology. I did not fully love them. But I liked them well enough and I'm so glad that I finally read them both. The writing was pretty much perfect. I liked the setting as well, though, well. I wish the books had been more fantasy. Less politics, ha. I would have loved them more if they had been a little more magical. Sigh. Still. The plot was interesting and I did like how it all ended. I cannot wait to read even more books by C.J. And I think you should read these too.
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