Bart mentioned he thought there was a little bit of slowness in the first third (after the story starts back up but before the action really gets going), but I didn’t really feel that way. She thinks of Akiva often, despite her best efforts, but in place of passion, love and yearning she feels only anger, betrayal and shame.

You know how, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wakes up in the crypt and Romeo’s already dead? However, I think there may be more to come and look forward to reading more from this gifted author. The futility of it is so obvious in literature, like this book, but why are we so blind to it in real life? I can easily see this book not having such a following as the first book in the series did - because of the pronounced darkness of the tone and the decided lack of romance. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a thurible to save his soul and it’s already gone, so there is nothing Karou can do.The Daily Mail also wrote a positive review, noting that while the plot could be "a tad complicated in places", the novel "flies on blood-tipped wings and grips like a magical vice". I love reading about love, but I am not of the opinion that just love can sustain a series of books. When Zuzana and Mik track her down, she's delighted to have her friends with her until she realises that Thiago will use them to make her do as he wants.

The somewhat annoying romance (though I probably belong to the minority here) is a little dialed down, and the plot is much more unpredictable. Breaking something is always easier than building something new - but it is rarely a sustainable solution to the problem. Sveva, Sarazel, and Rath are chimaera slaves who escaped after an attack from the Revenant and attempt to avoid being caught from Seraphim. After he is healed, Ziri tells Karou everything, including how Akiva summoned birds to let the Kirin escape.May be the author was in a bit of a hurry to finish the second one, then though better of it later and added the missing stuff there. Karou has left Earth for the land of the chimaera and seraphim, Eretz, where the chimaera have been defeated by the seraphim.

Both the characters and world building in this series are created wonderfully and incredibly vivid--which is surreal for such an imaginative fantasy world. The fire seems to be gone out of her for a while as she resigns herself to being a necessary albeit unwanted and resented player in the game - a puppet to be tolerated until she can be replaced. Yet, for all its good qualities, I do have a few minor qualms with this novel, primarily, the set-up of the book itself. But this second book, as I said before, is a great successor, and elevated the series to another level!Thus, the tone for Days of Blood and Starlight is set; one of revenge, grief, heartbreak, sorrow, despair, and yet, despite all that, hope. While I enjoyed, for the most part, the round and full picture this type of storytelling provided us with, I also found that some small chapters could have been entirely done away with.

I have a soft spot for reading about those scarred by painful experiences, and Karou wins my heart with her plight. Akiva and Karou are in different camps now, with an abyss of resentment, guilt and disappointment separating them. It is kind of hilarious, especially set to the backdrop of the plague breakout in Verona, which gives some perspective to the childish dramatics of our couple. This book makes it so you can guess all the twists, but you probably won't because they're never-before seen.Unfortunately for me, my ship’s romantic moments were essentially non-existent in this book, as well…mostly because of the revelations that came to pass at the end of the first instalment. I also know that I’m not alone in considering Zuzana to be one of my favourite characters, in not only this trilogy, but in YA fantasy itself! The real tragedy in either reading is that the story of these lovers can only exist within this window of time. Firstly the last pages are missing, who knows how many as it finished on page 502 for me as in the picture, not even a finished sentence so very disappointed in the publishing.