NEF

Still a pretty interesting series - I like how individual all the characters are, with their own motivations and personalities. The writing was still odd but definitely better than the first book.

Book 3 and part of Book 4 are where the personalities of the main characters really shine, I think, and each of them show they have their own motivations and ways of thinking and speaking.

Plot was alright until the end - it felt anti-climactic. Definitely more sophisticated a story than I expected.

A warm, soft, friendly book with complex characters, fantastic world-building, and incredible relationship dynamics between friends, families, and an emperor and his closest advisors.

I want to scream. I read [b:Thorn 51265989 Thorn (Dauntless Path, #1) Intisar Khanani https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563394270l/51265989.SX50_SY75.jpg 19122499], the prequel to this, and that reads like most other Goose Girl retellings I've ever read. Then I see that it has a sequel. Unusual. I'd hoped for more of Allyra, who is clever and responsible and warmly practical. Instead this book is about one of her attendants, a horse breeder's daughter with a turned foot and a pronounced limp, with no unusual beauty or riches. And it was glorious. I wanted to scream at the ending. It is a horribly well-placed cliffhanger, and unfortunately makes so much sense where it is. At one point in the book, I wondered if the series was meant to be a story of morals. Both the princess and Rae wonder about the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, the difference between which becomes ever more greyer, it seems, when you weigh that against the wellbeing of a nation. Throw in several Thief Lords, an unfriendly court, increasingly dangerous opponents, and a tonne of secrets, and you have a surprisingly political fairy tale with a tinge of romance. I loved it. I especially love how it ended - I cannot wait for the third book, because almost certainly Rae is going to grow into something even more terrifying and wonderful as she was here.

Somewhat clunky phrasing, but the plot thickens in a decent way.