A Draught of Ash and Wine

Most sequels I read don't seem like they follow the ‘sequel slump' feeling (or whatever it's called) but I felt that this one did. I know this is a series so I hope the third/next book (no idea if it'll be a trilogy or more). I still enjoyed this but not as much as the first book. It didn't have the same energy as the previous one. I did like where we went with the characters. How they changed, how they looked at things, because of what they went through in the previous book.

I really enjoyed how Jacques approached the characters this time around. Last book they were getting to know each other and this book it's more like they've been together for a long time (longer than the brief time that they actually are). I liked how easy they fit together, but they still had their differences.

I liked parts of the plot but not really the entire plot overall. I liked seeing the Estate but I also expected there to be more creatures there and we only saw two new characters (and others though they were antagonists). Even though about ¾ of the book is set in the Estate, I didn't feel like we really knew the two characters we meet there.

The pacing for this book was slow, slower than the first book's. I don't mind slow-paced books, but I don't want to take a long time to read a book because it's a slow-paced book. It did pick up after the 50% mark and I was able to read a bunch in one sitting.