The Empress of Time

I went straight from book 1 into book 2 and I pretty much feel the same as I did about book one. 3.5 stars if I could. It didn't improve on the things I disliked, but continued to do well the things that I did like. I'm still not a huge fan of Ren. It's hard to believe her absolute dedication to her brother after the events of the first book and again, though I get she is supposed to be a grey character, there was just not much about her I liked. Her one redeeming quality seems to be her love for her brother, but after previous events seems shallow at best. She accepts that she's flawed and not a good person, but does absolutely nothing to change that or to improve. I guess I expected more of a redemptive arc and didn't feel that actually happened. However, I still love the world-building and dark lyrical writing. The world continues to be unique, fascinating, horror-like and mythical in all the right ways. I was more pulled in by the world of Japanese myths and folklore much more than the characters, as I was in the first book. I struggle with how to rate these books because on one level I really enjoyed the world and magic and unique nature of the story, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters which is usually my biggest reason to love a book. I don't think they are in anyway bad and I think they are worth a read, but maybe just won't be an all time favourite.

It might be more of a 3.5.

I've been pretty bad this year at keeping up with series and that's what happened with this finale/sequel and I couldn't read it before the release despite having both a digital and audio arc. The Keeper of Night was one of my top favorite reads of last year, so when I finally felt in the mood for this book, I finished it way quicker than I expected.

While the first book was about Ren's descent into darkness, I think this was about what she is going in the darkness now that she is all alone. I can't say that she has entirely become cruel or that she is a very bad person, but her compassion mostly only extends to Neven and what she can do to save him. The love depicted in this series is all angsty and gut wrenching, but no way any less impactful while reading. I don't know if I like Ren a lot anymore but there's no doubt that I still wanted her to succeed and protect her brother, gain the acceptance that she so craves, and make a home for herself.

But the plot itself didn't feel as exciting as I found the first book. It almost was like Ren didn't know much about what she had to do and was scrambling across Japan to figure it out - which felt too reminiscent of the first book. I also think meeting all the different Yokai in the first book felt exciting, so there wasn't much new world building this time. Meeting a couple of new gods was fun but again I got the feeling it didn't add much to the story.

Overall, while I did enjoy following the characters - old and new - again and see what they've been upto, the not very substantial plot slightly disappointed me. I think I just had too many expectations after loving the first one a lot. But I did love the narration of Rebecca Yeo in the audiobook and she made it a pretty fun and quick listen. Despite my conflicting thoughts about this book, I'm still definitely looking forward to the author's new series next year.