Siege of Shadows

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The ending still has me going “What the hell...” but I think I can pull together some other feelings towards this book.

Many of my feelings are the same the first book. I like the girls v.s. monsters theme, although this book had a lot less fighting and a lot more whining which I'll get to. I was hoping that Maia would have gotten more control over her power – maybe not Belle level, but couldn't she come close?
I still like the theme of trying to figure out the past in order to protect the future and in this book they really dive into that... a bit, I did wish there had been more, but what we got is pretty good.

Now, the first book I gave 5 stars and this one only 3... most of this is because of the romance and the secrets. Maia is all about the Effigies being a team, working together, maybe being friends, yet she hides practically everything she knows from them –including the stuff about Rhys. She also can't decide how she feels about him, even though it is obvious, which is so aggravating. I don't want to spoil the first book too much, so I won't go into it, but in this book Maia kept whining and not DOING. I wish she had trusted Lake since they are close or even Chae Rin about what to do and told them everything about Natalya's memories.

So because of all the stuff she did wrong, we have an over-dramatic ending. Why? because there is no way– sigh Anyhow, I want more fighting and more understanding, but none of that really happened until the end. I felt I could have skipped half the book and still understood most of it. Well, except for the new type of bad guy but I still don't see their importance shrugs

The characters aren't flushing out either since we don't learn more about them. Sometimes the other effigies seemed like placeholders which was weird. Also, Brendan (?) didn't act his age all the time which I found odd, and I'm sorry a grown ass man checking out a teen (I think she's a teen anyhow) is just plain wrong. Yes, someone kinda stepped in, but it just was a creepy moment not addressed.

So, will I read the next book? I might. I am actually interested in the story. I want to know why the effigies exist and if the monsters will ever go away. I don't give two peanuts about the romance which seems underdeveloped and pointless, but I like Saul and want to know more about Nick and Alice.