Bid my soul farewell

3.3

Oh second books in duologies... you're never what I want you to be. I put off reading this book because I was afraid it would have Second Book Syndrome, and I was pretty right. I still got some time to enjoy the wonderful moral gray-ness of Nedra, but man the pacing got even slower and the things that annoyed me about the first books were even more highlighted.

Speaking of things that annoyed me- Grey. Grey! I am so sick of him! The romance was the primary thing I wasn't into in the first book and the ending of said book made me think we weren't going to have to deal with it- at least as much- as the story went on. Imagine my disappointment when Grey remained a narrator (why?) and the romance stayed just as focal. This is not Grey's story and he doesn't add much to it! Yes, he does bring in a little more context than in the first book, but that wasn't enough for me to be happy he was there. And constantly dragging Nedra down...

I liked the whiplash twists in the first book so much, and Revis tries to do something similar in this one, but it didn't work as well for me. It comes more out of the blue like a "bet you didn't see this coming!" sort of thing, instead of feeling like tension building into a realization like the first book. Or, maybe it felt more that way because we'd already seen it done, so it was like an encore instead of something new and cool.

All that said, I did like the foray into necromancy and the ideas we get to learn about. I wish Nedra had more time to go into all that, because what we did get was really interesting. I loved Nedra's desperation and anger and I love the way she grows into her role. Of course, it gets somewhat smothered by Grey's Lawful Good dudley do right campaign, but that's to be expected if you give him any of the spotlight.

I liked revisiting Nedra and her world, and the politics and changes in agenda were interesting to me after what we're shown in the first book, but it doesn't pack as much of a punch and Grey and the romance really overshadowed all the stuff I was waiting for. I still love Beth Revis, I just wish she'd made some bolder choices here.