I think what really made this book so good, thus preventing it from being a Second Book Syndrome flop, is how Chokshi still managed to make the plot exciting and filled with so many twists that you’ll be throwing your book in despair and anger. It hurts previously loved dynamics but helps with character and plot development so there’s both good and bad here. It’s not as big of a weakness or dislike as the lack of understanding a magic system is but is more of a strength within a weakness. It was frustrating as a reader to not have the characters get along and actually communicate but it was a very good reflection of the grief process and while I might not have appreciated it personally, I felt like it worked for the story at hand.

It’s kind of like you’re watching a once close-knit team that was broken refusing to put their pieces back together no matter how much you need them to. They’re all severely hurting and are trying to ignore it, which as we know is not the best idea, and because of that they all seem to hurt each other without even trying. The second thing that bothered me had more to do with the characters themselves and how this was a book where the characters not only had to pick themselves up after the devastating events of the first book but they had to figure out how to keep going. Again, this could just be on me and I might’ve missed it in the first book, obviously forgetting it for the whole duration of this book, but I can’t help but wish that it was explained just a tad bit more. I understand certain things, yes, but I’m still a bit confused to its inner workings and meanings. But it’s two books in and I can’t quite get a grasp on how Forging works or what it really entails. For some reason, I still don’t quite understand this story’s magic system and I can’t tell if that’s a me problem or a problem that Roshani Chokshi needs to address. This might be a quicker review than usual so I shall start with what I didn’t like. There was a lot going on in this book, equal parts character driven and plot driven, and though it was not perfect or as good as its predecessor, it was still a very good book that thankfully did not let me down. I don’t know what I would’ve done if this book fell into the dreaded Second Book Syndrome but I’m glad that I don’t have to find out. But did it deliver the way I needed it to? Absolutely.

Is it a bit dramatic for me to have put all my hopes on this particular release? Maybe.

It’s no secret that I’ve not been having the best reading year and more often than not I’ve been disappointed by majority of the 2020 releases I’ve read.

The gilded wolves 2