Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix

This is the sequel to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, and where Forest was about the rise of the Empress - or the evil stepmother from Snow White - this book is solidly about Snow White. Or Jade, in this case. I enjoyed Forest, but Kingdom is spectacular! It's hard to like Xifeng in Forest, where she continually makes the decisions that drag her deeper into the evil god's clutches. Jade, however, is sweet and determined and loyal and good. She is easy to love, and worthy of it. We see a few characters from the first book coming back to help Jade in her quest, and I loved seeing how they had grown in the intervening years.

I do feel like the romantic storyline was kind of shoehorned in. Jade falls in love with no real reason for it. We don't see what's so fantastic about her love interest, he isn't shown as doing anything outstanding, he's just kind of there and the first male person she's spent time with. I get why he fell in love with Jade, Jade is amazing. He's just so bland. So that felt a little odd.

I did enjoy the magic cloak and the quest and the final battle. The scene between Ming and Xifeng at the end was absolutely heartbreaking and made me love Ming even more. He might be my favorite character from both books.

Bottom line, this is an excellent sequel to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, and I think it's better than the first book. You could probably read it without reading Forest, but some of the reveals won't mean nearly as much, and you'll miss all the background that makes Xifeng so interesting.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.