Review: Fast-Paced, Enjoyable, Liked a Smidgen Less Than the First Book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2014
***I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the author in return for my honest review.***While I really liked this book, I didn't like it as much as the first one. It could have been my mood, the change in POV, or some combination thereof. I'm not 100% sure.I was a little sad that the second book wasn't from Serena's POV. In fact the interaction you get with Serena makes her seem not very confident. Almost like she lost a little bit of the oomph from the first book, but then again you are only getting her sister's POV of her.The plot line of the second book would not have been as successful, if not from Cynthia's POV. I could have gone for a dual POV of Serena and Cynthia, but that's okay. I do like that the plotline of this book does answer one of the questions I had from the first book, "The only thing that I don't quite understand is how the magic works. Clearly boys are trained on the use of magic, but I didn't hear of any girls accidentally discovering how to use their own magic. I would assume it would happen at least occasionally." Well, it DOES happen! ***SPOILER ALERT!***When it does bad things happen to the woman who does magic and then she is erased from the memory of her loved ones.***END SPOILER***Like with the first book, I could have also done with a little bit romance. The romance that was there, was sweet though. I liked all of the "good" characters and despised the "bad" ones. I liked finding out a little bit more about the world outside of Chardonia. I would still like to see one of the characters travel and experience first hand one of the outside countries that doesn't treat women as bad as Chardonia.At least one of my other wishes for the second book also happens in this one, so I was pretty happy about that too.The ending is pretty abrupt and I can't wait to see how that works out in the next book. Since the author switched up POV's for this book, I wonder who we will follow in the next. Serena? Cynthia? Some combination thereof? Another sister? Waverly? Someone else entirely?Overall, I really liked the story and would definitely recommend it to a friend. Although, I would have them read the first book first, so they can get more background on the world this series is set in.Happy Reading!