Children of Virtue and Vengeance

So here's some actual thoughts on Book 2. But before I dig in, I highly recommend reading book 1 first. Don't jump into book 2 without all the context of book 1. Just trust me on that. And if you don't want spoilers, don't read this. My feelings won't be hurt by you not reading this, I promise.

Now my thoughts.

I'm going to start by saying that Amari was a prime example of entitlement throughout the majority of the book. Her family is single handedly responsible for the attempted destruction of a people and she spent the majority of the book whining about how these same people didn't just invite her to have a seat at the table. Every time she cut her eyes at Zélie because everyone was looking to her for input I wanted to tell Amari to have several seats. I also hated the fact that she went all Khaleesi in the last season of Game of Thrones.

She spent all this time talking about how she would be a better leader than her father and then ruthlessly decided to sacrifice innocent people including Zelie. Zelie, however, continues to prove her incredibly high level of bad assery throughout the entire book. It was interesting watching her battle with her feelings about Amari and her magic. This book does an amazing job of capturing the back and forth when it came to her frustrations. In the first book I kind of liked what she had going on with Inan (until that all blew up) and I definitely understand her emotional state as far as that was concerned. I wasn't feeling her budding situation with Roen in book 1 but it really grew on me in book 2. My favorite moment was him taking her away in hopes of making her smile. That moment was so sweet and unexpected. It's nice seeing him as more than just a mercenary.

I really expected more from Tzain in this book. Seems like he was so caught up with Amari that he didnt support his sister as much as I think he could have. I wasn't super convinced that Amari would be this great ruler and I certainly didn't have any faith in Inan. But their mother is a completely different type of beast. Queen Nehanda... I love a good bad guy in a story and she gives all the best bad guy energy. Don't get me wrong... down with the bloody red queen and all that but you can't deny she comes with an insane level of bad assery herself. I think the only person who matches Zelie for me is Mama Agba. She is my second favorite character throughout the entire series and her literal sacrifice turned the tides for the movement. Her wisdom, her strength, the fact that she hid her own secrets for as long as she did in the first book... man. A character that I have so much respect for. I cried real tears when she died. I understood and respected her sacrifice but I, like Zellie, wasn't ready to see he go. Another death that i wasn't ready for... Mazeli. I really liked him! His energy from the very beginning was a lot in the best way. My heart broke when he died.

And that ending. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel and then boom. When I got to the last pages of the book I ended up sitting and processing. I was absolutely stuck and I guess I'm just going to have to stay stuck until the next book comes out. 😫😩