This is the sequel to ASH PRINCESS. If you don't want anything spoiled about book 1, I would highly recommend skipping this review.
An amazon summary to ponder your choices, but also without all the praise and hype from book 1 because I don't want three pages of amazon summary, kthxbai, "The Kaiser murdered Theodosia's mother, the Fire Queen, when Theo was only six. He took Theo's country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess--a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. That era has ended. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenseless. He didn't realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon.
Theo no longer wears a crown of ashes. She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage--Prinz Soren. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser's rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne.
To get them back, she will need an army. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Something an Astrean Queen has never done.
Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
To very briefly recap book 1; after 10 years of brutal torture and humiliation at the hands of the Kaiser, the man who murdered her mother, who forced her to kill her father, and who was really just a misery of a man; Theo managed to reconnect with one of her childhood friends, hatches a plan to escape, and manages to escape with the help of Prinz Soren...who she ends up kidnapping. The briefest recap everrrrrr. There's a lot of good stuff in book one, I would recommend reading it.
Theo needs to reclaim her throne. Oh, also at the end of book one she meets up with the mysterious pirate Dragonsbane who turns out to be her mother's twin, and therefore her aunt. ...pretty random and cool right? Not a convenient plot device at all. Shh, it's fine.
Theo needs to reclaim her throne. With the help of Dragonsbane, she begrudgingly agrees to meet suitors in a kingdom where they'll be safe from Kaiser, for now. She suspects Dragonsbane has an agreement with the kingdom, but she has yet to figure out what it may be. Her trio of guardians become her most trusted counsel, but, Theo still can't shake her feelings for Prinz Soren, confusing as they may be. While on Dragonsbane ship, Prinz Soren has been locked up. Theo insists on seeing him, and hates the way he's being treated, and through several manipulations and mishaps, Prinz Soren is able to travel with them rather than as a prisoner.
However, Theo is opposed to being married since her kingdom, which should really be referred to as a queendom, has always been ruled by queens (hence queendom).
...and I'm just going to stop summarizing there.
This book was basically Theo's rude awakening to how the world works outside of the Kaiser's prison, but also, how the Kaiser inadvertently trained her kind of, to navigate tense or aggravated situations at all times.
That being said, Theo tried to champion for herself a lot during the book, but it didn't seem believable since she also relied so heavily on her guardians to do so much for her. It's not that she was constantly being rescued, it was more like she'd lead all of them directly to the danger, and then kind of let someone else take over as she ambled around in the mostly background?
I think the author intended for Theo to be a strong, feminist character, RAHHHHH which would have been really cool. I just don't think Theo comes across like that. For one, Theo has too much going on to really engage in the various situations she's thrown in. For two, Theo is kind of a flat character; besides mad or uncertain, I don't think she really conveyed any other emotions during the book.
Plus, the side characters really felt diminished to only their abilities or how Theo could maneuver them to get what she needed out of a situation. It was kind of disheartening. I was hoping that out of the palace we would get to see more of everyone else... but we did get to see a little more of Dragonsbane's daughter, Artemesia, but again, she seemed to be reduced to the role of Dragonsbane's daughter, plus wield water, plus fight well. Granted, we saw her personality more so than anyone else's... because somehow Prinz Soren was reduced to entirely uninteresting and being shuffled around in ways that made him a liability more than anything because then Theo would have to manipulate everyone else into rescuing him again.
...this book was a bit maddening, but now I'm invested, so I'm going to read book 3.
I did overall, enjoy the book (I say with lots of hesitation) but the closer I look at it, the more flaws that become apparent. It's kind of one of those. Yeah.
Happy reading!
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