Reading this book for the second time made me love it more. If such a thing is possible. These books have my heart. There is so much to love. So much to hurt over. So much to obsess over. Just truly such a beautiful and heartbreaking tale. I loved reading this book again so very much. It was perfection. It was so good.
There is much I want to say about it. Though I probably shared a whole lot in my first review last year. Still going to share all of my thoughts. And I have so many. I just cannot deal with how badly I love this perfect story. Is it possible to love a romance more than I love the one of Tamsin and Emrys? I think not. Cutest romance.
The writing is truly incredible in these two books. I have no faults with it at all. Which makes me so happy. It is so easy to get lost in this world. So very easy to fall in love with the characters. I'm not going to write too much about the plot of this second book. I will start by saying a little bit. It takes place right after the end of book one. Tamsin and Neve and Olwen and Caitriona have just gotten back to Tamsin's real world, after Avalon got destroyed by Lord Death. By their friend. By Tamsin's brother. Nash just came back from the dead, years later. And that was such a great plot twist. Though we just see him for a short moment at first. Where he makes things more complicated for Tamsin, revealing that she has a curse she did not know about. Which was all kinds of interesting to get to know more about through the whole book.
There is so much going on in this second book. Lord Death have been unleashed on the world. He is out for revenge. He is searching for the lost soul of his supposed beloved. He is killing people, adding more to his Wild Hunt, adding more to be the monstrous Children. And Tamsin and her friends are desperate to stop him. Considering they are the ones who released him from Avalon. By accident, of course. But they want revenge too. For all the innocent people who died back in Avalon. My heart still hurts for that. Sobs.
And so they are looking for a way to defeat him. A way for Tamsin to get her brother back, to save Cabell. If he can be saved. This book was so complicated for that poor cursed boy. We learned very much about him, about his past. And I loved it so. I'm also still mad at him for his bad choices. Which he kept making. What he did to Librarian hurt my soul. Shudders. Such a sad moment. But so well done too. Cabell had such a good story in this book. He changed. Both worse and for better. I think I love how his story ended.
We get to finally meet the Bonecutter. And she was such a great character. I loved reading about her. She was all kinds of creepy and cool and I so loved all that she could do. For a price, of course. We also learn more about the cat, which was rude. Yet kind of awesome too. We get to meet the Hag of the Moors, and I loved her to pieces. She was all kinds of murderous. But I loved that. She was fun. We meet more of the sorceresses, and I just did not like them at all, ha. Which was the point, I guess. They were not very nice.
One of the things I loved most was the relationship between Tamsin and Neve and Olwen and Cait. They got as close as sisters. They were there for each other, after all they had gone through in book one. All the heartbreak they had shared. They needed each other. They did have some arguments, but nothing too damaging. I missed the sibling relationship between Tamsin and Cabell, though, since they were not together much in this one. And she was so hurt by his choices. It was so painful. Yet she still loved him.
Then there was Emrys. And I cannot deal with the pain this book brought me. He left them all behind in Avalon. Without knowing what had happened after he left. And this broke Tamsin. She was so hurt. And I fully got that. Yet I fully got why he left with the ring as well. I loved that he was not gone for long, though. He ended up being there with them, searching for a weapon together. But he and Tamsin had some bad blood between them for a bit too long, haha. He hurt her with his words. For good reasons, but it still hurt.
Yet he was still there. And he kept saving her life over and over again. Just confusing her heart more. It was so obvious that he loved her. And she loved him too. But it did take them a long while to get there. To get to sharing their secrets. To finally open up more. But when it finally happened, oh. It was the absolute best thing. I loved Tamsin and Emrys together more than anything. They were the cutest. And fit together so well. I can't deal with how badly I loved the romance in these books. No triangle, just them. Perfection.
I loved how much Tamsin kept changing. How she went from such a grumpy rude person to such a loving one. How she finally opened up her heart more, despite being scared of being hurt. She was still grumpy, though. And I loved that about her. She was such a broken person. And I loved her the most. Well, okay, maybe loved Emrys more. He was such a gentle soul. Mostly. And he had been hurt most of all. Getting to know all of his secrets pretty much killed me. Such a good story. But oh, the pain. It hurt so very badly.
Okay. I have already written way too much about this book. And still have more to say. Oops. Shall try to keep the rest short. Possibly. Other things I loved about this book. Learning the truth about Tamsin. About Neve and her special powers. Getting to know more about Nash and his life. Getting to see Tamsin slowly heal from the hurt when he left, all those years ago. I loved the plot twists in this book. It was simply epic. And so exciting. There was the coin. That was painful. Yet truly perfect as well and made me very happy.
Most of this book is told from the point of view of Tamsin, but the first pages is from Emrys. And it is the most painful scene. Especially when Tamsin ends up seeing it too, later in the book. Shudders. I loved it so much. Then we get a few chapters from Cabell as well, which told us so much from the other side of the story. It was so good. A favorite part of these books is the magic. It was different and so interesting to read about. There is so much I love about it all. There is no way that I have been able to write it all down.
Just because I cannot stop myself from mentioning it, I want a third book. The ending is perfection. But there are also more that could be written. And I want all of it. I do not feel done with this world and these characters. I want more of everything. Pretty please, Alexandra. Write a little more. Okay, there does not need to be more. But there could be. I want more adventures. More of the otherworlds, perhaps. More of that romance, please. I don't feel like I'm done with these characters. How rude, ha. Love them too much.
There were so many epic scenes in this book. I'm not going to be able to mention all of them. Although I will say that my favorite one was more than halfway in the book, where Tamsin and Emrys finally have a moment alone together, just them. Where they finally talk about things. Where secrets are shared. And it was so painful. So precious. So lovely. My favorite scene from the books. They finally got to understand each other better. And I loved it more than words. Also loved the small tower scene in book one. Cutest.
Even though I had already read this book once, I still cried near the
ending. I cried so much, even while knowing what would come. It still hurt me
so much. Which is just beautiful, honestly. Because this book is full of feelings and hurt and pain. I loved every moment of it. Okay, some parts were harder than others. It was all so real and precious and I simply loved it all too much. You need these books in your life already. They are ready to crush your heart. But heal it too. This story is worth all the pain in it as well. So perfect.
The Mirror of Beasts was just as perfect this second time I read it. Possibly even more, as I understood a little more this time. It was truly perfection. I have decided that I love this sequel more than I love the first book. Probably. The first one has the stunning world of Avalon, which is a plus. But this second one have more of Emrys and Tamsin together, and I loved that more than anything. Would also like to mention that my song for these books are Castles Crumbling by Taylor Swift. It fits so well for me. It has all the vibes.
This duology is truly the most perfect one. My favorite books. And they are both so precious to me. Silver in the Bone was the first I fell in love with. The Mirror of Beasts just made that love grow more. Of course, they both crushed my heart into a million pieces. But I was healed too. Well, somewhat, haha. These two books are books that I would read again and again. And I am so glad that I read them this year too. Might have to make it a yearly thing. I cannot wait to read even more books by Alexandra. She is the very best.
