Note to everyone writing a sequel: Please have someone read it who hasn't read the first book. Because they'll (rightly) be able to help you add in the 1-2 sentences that will jog memories or provide a quick synopsis of what happened in the first book. Don't expect your readers to be Harry Potter-level obsessed with your work and know every nuance and character as well as you do - especially if you have an abundance of characters.
I resisted this at first with my editor with my own sequel, but after reading Vane and seeing my own reactions, I am a bit more hyped on this than usual.
That is to start off this review saying that I spent most of it scratching my head and trying to remember who everyone was, why they were important, and what the hell was going on. Which was FRUSTRATING because this book had such good moments in it, but I spent too long playing catch up that I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have.
Ava and Cale - the former who is an adopted tough girl and the latter a red dragon - are in exile (never fully explained why) and struggling to get by (although apparently living with her adopted mother, never really explained). Things get more heavy when a Black dragon shows up with his red dragon pregger wife - a no-no. The Black Dragon asks them to keep watch, which they don't, because they go to Ireland. And then to the Gray Dragon lair, where there's all this talk about the Pearl. Also, Ava is a Phoenix, and she kept dying and returning, and wanting to stay but needing to go.
Besides the boatload of drama, there were chunks - HUGE CHUNKS - of exposition missing. A few chapters seemed to toss us into the middle of the action without any details or connection to the chapter before. Sometimes this works, but for a book where I was already playing catch-up, I just got more frustrated. Most notable - Ava disappears to the Gray Dragon lair and we don't get to see it.
The best moments were between Ava and Cale. They were bonded, they were close, but there was tension between them as there were parts of Ava that Cale couldn't get to. Her worry for him and his worry for her were palpable.
This book deserved more stars for the plot, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Three stars.
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