The Providence of Fire

The Emperor's Blades ???????????????The Providence of Fire ???????????????

Brian Staveley was a brand new author to me when I originally picked up The Emperor's Blades in 2018. With his first book, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Ever since that first book, I've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to read the next book.

The second book focuses more on Adare than the first, and gives her the space to establish herself more in the story. In the first book, Adare was still in the capital playing a political game with the ministers surrounding her. In the second book, she has to leave the capital and finds herself trying to establish of her own. A lot of reviews are not impressed with Adare as she is frustrating, and makes stupid decisions. I don't really feel like this is a fair assessment of her arc in this book, she is operating with almost no information; of which probably a small amount is current. The reader knows more than Adare for a good chunk of the book! I feel like Adare made decisions as best she could with her lack of information, and made the best of a shitty situation.

I still thoroughly enjoyed the second book in this series, and would highly reccomend this series to anyone who reads. The complex, well paced plot that I adored in the first book slows down slightly in the second half of this book. The book never felt boring and I really enjoyed every second of it. I cannot wait to pick up the third book.