You know, if you kept the first and last 10 pages of this book, the story wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately, the other 320 pages happened.
Did I hate read this? Pretty much. I did not like the first book and had accidentally bought this one first, so I didn't want to waste my money by selling it before reading. So thankfully I just wasted my time...hooray.
Lets talk about the Good, (which inevitably creates more bads.)
The Writing:
Her sentences are really nicely made, nice flowery writing. Unfortunately, when you just want a book to be over, these sentences waste so much time. It usually also causes a lot of repetition as the author needs to rewrite how the actor feels a hundred times a hundred different ways.
I mean there was this though, which I liked:
"If the boat weren't beneath my feet, the weight of this decision would plunge me to the bottom of the sea."
The Ending:
I go into more detail about what actually happened at the end. But the ending was actually interesting and after everything this author did I didn't expect for what to happen to happen. Unfortunately, it also raises a lot more questions, answers very little questions, and PAINFULLY points out how completely useless everything in this book was.
The Bad:
There were way too many logical inconsistency's. I could nitpick but then the review will be too long and people already don't read my reviews sooooo lets move on. (But seriously why end book 1 with her escaping captivity just to get her captured 35 pages into book 2)
One of the Messages:
I may not say this next part eloquently (and I'm also not paid to be her line editor so I don't care to delve too deep) but I feel like every time she brought up the whole "These rich people dont understand what they take for granted in terms of their money/time. And Ive been poor and get so angry when I see them so wasteful." REALLY sticks out like a sore thumb and comes off annoying and even preachy.
I feel like shes trying to make this her back story (and It might be b/c I didnt like book 1 and havent read it in a while) but at the same time her real and MORE CONCERNING back story is this "Fated to battle/ reincarnated lives" story.
One seems more important and sure they could probably work together but in the case of this book I feel like they dont, and wish she would stop bringing it up. (It makes me think of The Hunger Games when Katniss and Peeta realize the gluttony/ waste of the Capital. Except it makes sense and is far more impactful because THAT'S the story that has been built up and what Katniss is struggling with, it reinforces this reaction instead of it just being a 'side-plot/thought'.
Spoiler:
I actually wrote this paragraph before finishing the book. Now that I have I feel like this plot point would have worked PERFECTLY if they brought in the horror of Ever earlier and showed how Jules has grown up with this selfish, tyrannical man who ruined the lives of the people in this land. So she knows exactly what this greed can lead to...but no they wanted to save that for the last 10 pages where it did almost nothing!
Liam/ Romance:
For the first whole book we have to hear Jules preening over Roan. (Which could be annoying but atleast the central plot wasnt that big of a deal during that novel until end) With this one we have to deal with this stupid flirtation between Liam and Jules when they have ALOT more going on. I hate when books like this HAVE to put in some love interest that has to tickle at EVERY SINGLE EVENT. Like shut up and stop thinking about how you two make each other feel, there's a crazy bitch sorceress trying to steal your damn heart.
Its actually ALMOST compelling because Caro's plan is to break her heart. So it kinda should make sense, but the way all of her writing is coming together just comes off super annoying.
I still dont see why Id root for Liam and Jules. We dont get anything that great from him in the first book and in this one where we should be mourning for his brother they are for some reason falling for each other while they are on the run trying to kill an ancient too-powerful witch. The ONLY reason the author put this here is so there is tension that the Sorceress will break Jules heart.
It just seems so stupid to break up this book with WAY too many moments of Liam and Jules fawning over each other when there are much higher stakes. I hate when authors put this kind of stuff in, like no one would be thinking about this with everything else going on.
I was desperately hoping Liam was gay with Elias so that romance angle would be dead in the water. It was interesting how Liam was a scholar but he just became increasingly over-protective and a know it all. The author just threw that in there so it could inform us everything because he had already studied it before book one started.
Why didnt they just move the "heart-breaking" roll to Ina and avoid this annoying romance plot.
Liam Spoilers:
This romance is even far more annoying by the end because you probably think "This is red herring and really its Ina who will break Jules heart" But then its not Ina either, so you dont even need Liam at all as a romance option.
It at least could have been better if they would have linked him with Ever and the Hound, since hes part of that family...and I guess the Sorceress' lineage right? I dont think it explains how his line continued...
Honestly, the way this author wrote the scene where The Huntsman (aka jules) sneaks up on Liam and then he just whips around and spills his fckn heart out completely unprovoked and says "I love her!" Is so laughably pathetic. It actually makes me sick...wow good writing on this romance.
The Flow of Story:
The later it gets into the book the far more confusing it gets. Especially with the memories.
Ina:
Did I like her in book one, yeah she was ok, sweet and a nice contradiction to what you're led to believe people like this are.
I didn't really develop a certain connection to her, the fact she was meant to marry Roan, and us being in Jules head who is hopelessly in love with Roan pushed us to not like Ina.
Then randomly she's Jules sister..twin sister in fact. (I wont even argue if they actually look like twins, I don't really care, plus I know there are fraternal twins but then I feel like that's not the point of adding twins to a story) In this book she thinks so fondly of her sister Ina, even though I feel like it was badly built up to. She keeps going on and on about the coronation and how her sister is going to be queen and she wished she could be apart of it and she thinks Ina will be a good Queen.
This is almost compelling, the idea that Ina hates Jules, that Jules cant support Ina is ALMOST compelling.
Except as I said, this wasn't set up really well. We didn't get enough time to bond the girls, I also don't even see WHY Ina should be Queen and even more so why Jules even thinks Ina WILL be a good Queen. Did I miss the part where it made it evident Ina is ready to rule their kingdom and will make good choices.
Its just one of the elements that could have been far more compelling if set up correctly. But by later in the story its quite evident this whole Sister role should have been COMPLETELY scrapped from the book and given to Caro...
Ina Spoilers:
Why would the dumbass Sorceress LET Ina go after Jules? Did she honestly not assume theyd talk? And I must not have cared to read the description of the Huntsman very well (probably bc I stopped caring about what the author wrote unless its dialogue bc everything else is wasted words and time) b/c the Huntsman did not come off as a female figure. Why is she even good at fighting anyway? Speaking of which...wasn't Jules some sort of Hunter like at the beginning of book one? Shouldn't she be more skilled than pampered Ina. Furthermore, on the whole Huntsman thing. Didnt it make it seem like she was able to track Jules? It NEVER explains how...I thought if anything the Huntsman was related to Ever since his whole thing was Hounds, I thought some kind of magic like that was happening...
The Ending:
You know what? The conclusion that The Alchemist wanted to stop her evil StepFather and had to use her sisters power and theyre combined love to create a weapon to do it, wasnt that bad of an idea. Its too bad this whole book is completely pointless and weighs it down. They should have focused more on that and their history. We have so many questions. Like why is The Alchemist even called the Alchemist, and the Sorceress the Sorceress? Why did she even turn her heart into 12 stones? Didn't Caro already lose her powers, so why would she just not believe Antonio and kill her by drowning her. HOW did Antonia die anyway, she actually had power at the time and Caro didn't. What even IS there power? Why did we get this weird sister plot with Ina when the TRUE sister plot is with Caro? Just...wtf was the author thinking when she wrote this. The real interesting thing was how the whole broken heart thing wasn't Liam or Ina, but Caro herself. But then...did Caro know this? It didnt seem like Caro always broke Antonias heart, it sounded like she just straight up killed her. The whole 12 live things is just stupid anyway because then we readers just think "So this last life is the only time The Alchemist figured it out?" It would have been infintily more interesting if all her past lives led to this final clue, but only her first life had any significance. Honestly the more I go into this book the more questions I have. I feel like this author tried to write too complicated of a plot she couldn't handle and didnt want it to be too short so she had to fill it with...crap.
In Conclusion:
This book was a bad waste of time. The had too many things she wanted to do and accomplished none of them. I didnt even go into how Magic is practically non existent from the Sorceress, and theres a hundred of those dumb nitpicks I was talking about earlier.
I dont recommend at all. If you were a fan of book One, anything you could come up with as a conclusion is better than what was written.
I may not say this next part eloquently (and I'm also not paid to be her line editor so I don't care to delve too deep) but I feel like every time she brought up the whole "These rich people dont understand what they take for granted in terms of their money/time. And Ive been poor and get so angry when I see them so wasteful." REALLY sticks out like a sore thumb and comes off annoying and even preachy.
I feel like shes trying to make this her back story (and It might be b/c I didnt like book 1 and havent read it in a while) but at the same time her real and MORE CONCERNING back story is this "Fated to battle/ reincarnated lives" story.
One seems more important and sure they could probably work together but in the case of this book I feel like they dont, and wish she would stop bringing it up. (It makes me think of The Hunger Games when Katniss and Peeta realize the gluttony/ waste of the Capital. Except it makes sense and is far more impactful because THAT'S the story that has been built up and what Katniss is struggling with, it reinforces this reaction instead of it just being a 'side-plot/thought'.
Spoiler:
I actually wrote this paragraph before finishing the book. Now that I have I feel like this plot point would have worked PERFECTLY if they brought in the horror of Ever earlier and showed how Jules has grown up with this selfish, tyrannical man who ruined the lives of the people in this land. So she knows exactly what this greed can lead to...but no they wanted to save that for the last 10 pages where it did almost nothing!
Liam/ Romance:
For the first whole book we have to hear Jules preening over Roan. (Which could be annoying but atleast the central plot wasnt that big of a deal during that novel until end) With this one we have to deal with this stupid flirtation between Liam and Jules when they have ALOT more going on. I hate when books like this HAVE to put in some love interest that has to tickle at EVERY SINGLE EVENT. Like shut up and stop thinking about how you two make each other feel, there's a crazy bitch sorceress trying to steal your damn heart.
Its actually ALMOST compelling because Caro's plan is to break her heart. So it kinda should make sense, but the way all of her writing is coming together just comes off super annoying.
I still dont see why Id root for Liam and Jules. We dont get anything that great from him in the first book and in this one where we should be mourning for his brother they are for some reason falling for each other while they are on the run trying to kill an ancient too-powerful witch. The ONLY reason the author put this here is so there is tension that the Sorceress will break Jules heart.
It just seems so stupid to break up this book with WAY too many moments of Liam and Jules fawning over each other when there are much higher stakes. I hate when authors put this kind of stuff in, like no one would be thinking about this with everything else going on.
I was desperately hoping Liam was gay with Elias so that romance angle would be dead in the water. It was interesting how Liam was a scholar but he just became increasingly over-protective and a know it all. The author just threw that in there so it could inform us everything because he had already studied it before book one started.
Why didnt they just move the "heart-breaking" roll to Ina and avoid this annoying romance plot.
Liam Spoilers:
This romance is even far more annoying by the end because you probably think "This is red herring and really its Ina who will break Jules heart" But then its not Ina either, so you dont even need Liam at all as a romance option.
It at least could have been better if they would have linked him with Ever and the Hound, since hes part of that family...and I guess the Sorceress' lineage right? I dont think it explains how his line continued...
Honestly, the way this author wrote the scene where The Huntsman (aka jules) sneaks up on Liam and then he just whips around and spills his fckn heart out completely unprovoked and says "I love her!" Is so laughably pathetic. It actually makes me sick...wow good writing on this romance.
The Flow of Story:
The later it gets into the book the far more confusing it gets. Especially with the memories.
Ina:
Did I like her in book one, yeah she was ok, sweet and a nice contradiction to what you're led to believe people like this are.
I didn't really develop a certain connection to her, the fact she was meant to marry Roan, and us being in Jules head who is hopelessly in love with Roan pushed us to not like Ina.
Then randomly she's Jules sister..twin sister in fact. (I wont even argue if they actually look like twins, I don't really care, plus I know there are fraternal twins but then I feel like that's not the point of adding twins to a story) In this book she thinks so fondly of her sister Ina, even though I feel like it was badly built up to. She keeps going on and on about the coronation and how her sister is going to be queen and she wished she could be apart of it and she thinks Ina will be a good Queen.
This is almost compelling, the idea that Ina hates Jules, that Jules cant support Ina is ALMOST compelling.
Except as I said, this wasn't set up really well. We didn't get enough time to bond the girls, I also don't even see WHY Ina should be Queen and even more so why Jules even thinks Ina WILL be a good Queen. Did I miss the part where it made it evident Ina is ready to rule their kingdom and will make good choices.
Its just one of the elements that could have been far more compelling if set up correctly. But by later in the story its quite evident this whole Sister role should have been COMPLETELY scrapped from the book and given to Caro...
Ina Spoilers:
Why would the dumbass Sorceress LET Ina go after Jules? Did she honestly not assume theyd talk? And I must not have cared to read the description of the Huntsman very well (probably bc I stopped caring about what the author wrote unless its dialogue bc everything else is wasted words and time) b/c the Huntsman did not come off as a female figure. Why is she even good at fighting anyway? Speaking of which...wasn't Jules some sort of Hunter like at the beginning of book one? Shouldn't she be more skilled than pampered Ina. Furthermore, on the whole Huntsman thing. Didnt it make it seem like she was able to track Jules? It NEVER explains how...I thought if anything the Huntsman was related to Ever since his whole thing was Hounds, I thought some kind of magic like that was happening...
The Ending:
You know what? The conclusion that The Alchemist wanted to stop her evil StepFather and had to use her sisters power and theyre combined love to create a weapon to do it, wasnt that bad of an idea. Its too bad this whole book is completely pointless and weighs it down. They should have focused more on that and their history. We have so many questions. Like why is The Alchemist even called the Alchemist, and the Sorceress the Sorceress? Why did she even turn her heart into 12 stones? Didn't Caro already lose her powers, so why would she just not believe Antonio and kill her by drowning her. HOW did Antonia die anyway, she actually had power at the time and Caro didn't. What even IS there power? Why did we get this weird sister plot with Ina when the TRUE sister plot is with Caro? Just...wtf was the author thinking when she wrote this. The real interesting thing was how the whole broken heart thing wasn't Liam or Ina, but Caro herself. But then...did Caro know this? It didnt seem like Caro always broke Antonias heart, it sounded like she just straight up killed her. The whole 12 live things is just stupid anyway because then we readers just think "So this last life is the only time The Alchemist figured it out?" It would have been infintily more interesting if all her past lives led to this final clue, but only her first life had any significance. Honestly the more I go into this book the more questions I have. I feel like this author tried to write too complicated of a plot she couldn't handle and didnt want it to be too short so she had to fill it with...crap.
In Conclusion:
This book was a bad waste of time. The had too many things she wanted to do and accomplished none of them. I didnt even go into how Magic is practically non existent from the Sorceress, and theres a hundred of those dumb nitpicks I was talking about earlier.
I dont recommend at all. If you were a fan of book One, anything you could come up with as a conclusion is better than what was written.
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