A Sky of Emerald Stars

I absolutely loved book 1, A River of Golden Bones, and was so excited for this book, A Sky of Emerald Stars. But it just didn't meet expectations for me. 

What I enjoyed:
- Dual POV: we still get Calla's pov but we also get Sadie's POV and I really enjoyed that 
- Character development: I feel like we got to see some really good development from Sadie and Calla, as well of some of the supporting characters 
- The setting: Mulford never lets me down on her settings and the continuation of this world is no different! It was cool to get to explore more of the world in this book


What I didn't enjoy:
- The plot didn't really get anywhere. Like yes this is obviously stuff we need to know to move forward in the series. Setting up for a war and trying to acquire allies. But it just didn't seem like the plot moved forward. It felt like a side quest.
- The pacing: this dragged. I was tandem reading (ebook + audio) and I still had to take a break because I got so bored. 
- The romance between Sadie and Navin: I hate second chance romances. It is so hard to convince me that they can actually make things work a second time. This romance was on the way to convincing me and then!!!! All of a sudden (IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT) all is forgiven and they're saying “I love you”. I went back to reread because I was SURE that I had missed something. I hadn't.

I honestly feel like this could have been a novella and It could have been a 5 star read. But here we are almost 400 pages and a 3.5 star.  

** thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an eARC and an ALC**