Riven Knight

I went back to Clifton Forge last week and read Riven Knight, book 2 in the series, and it didn't disappoint. In this book we finally see the mystery from Steel King solved! As someone who needs closure, I was very happy to have that. The main characters in this story are Genevieve and Isaiah who get married in order to not have to testify against one another after events in Steel King. Riven Knight is full of marriage of convenience and forced proximity goodness— lots of tension! I'm really enjoying this series and can't wait to continue!

Slow burn/fake marriage/(light)romanic suspense

I feel like the book gave enough background on things that happened in the first one that it could be read as a standalone but I wouldn't recommend it. The plot of this book is heavily tied to the first one.

Honestly both the main characters have a lot of trauma they're dealing with internally and one of them is notoriously quiet and closed off so there's a lot of working through things on their own before they're able to come together. Their relationship never fully pulled me in but it was still a good read. Once the action picked up towards the end it was hard to put it down. It definitely satisfied the curiosity I had after the end of the first book.