A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess is the second book in the Kingdom on Fire series.
At the end of book one we leave Henrietta pretending to be the sorcerers chosen one, when in fact she is only half sorcerer, half magician. Henrietta is supposed to be the savior of magic, the one meant to put down the Ancients and stop this brutal war. But Henrietta isn’t the chosen one and pretending to be so has put her and those she loves in terrible danger.
As Henrietta digs into the Ancients past, hoping for a way to defeat them, she stumbles upon terrible secrets and dark truths that upend her world and risk ruining everything she’s fought for. With her friends in tow, Henrietta will risk everything to make things right. Will Henrietta be able to wage a war built on a field of lies? And what will she do when the cards are stacked against her?
Sigh. I have this problem… If I start a series, I have to finish it no matter how lackluster I feel about it. Kingdom on Fire is a prime example of this. It’s not a bad series, I just wasn’t overly interested in the first book and, unfortunately, that feeling has carried into the second. I kind of like the politics of the magicians vs the sorcerers and their fight against the ancients but that’s about it. Again, in no way is this a bad read, I am just not into it.
There are a few things that could make this better for me… First and foremost, the Rook/Henrietta plot line. I hated this doomed relationship in the first book and it did not get better in the second book… at all. I kind of got annoyed every time Rook even showed up. Harsh, I know.
I also don’t know why every male character has to be in love with Henrietta. Even after they agree to be friends… wait! I still love you. And she like has separate, potential love, connections with each of them. If it were me, I’d be like can’t a girl just be friend! Just too much romance drama in this book for me.
And Blackwood! He was actually one of the characters I really liked and I was sort of rooting for him and Henrietta to get together because they were friends and have a bond and their wasn’t this wish-y wash-y-ness about their relationship. But his character does a complete 180 after about the first 50 pages or so. This almost irked me as much as Rook.
Sorry if it seems like I am bashing this series. It just isn’t my cup of tea. I gotta give it 2.5 stars. Better then the first book but not by much.
That’s all for now!
-M-