Tearmoon Empire: Volume 2

Summer vacation has come, and Mia is back in Tearmoon surveying the results of the work she did in the previous book. After safely avoiding a bloodbath involving the Lulu tribe, the bloody diary finally disappears and Mia learns that she has safely avoided the guillotine future... only for the revolution to move to Remno instead. As Mia goes on a quest to save Abel with her friends, we get to see more of the world with its political intrigue that turns out to be directly tied to her execution in the first timeline. It's a fresh change from the previous volume that took place mainly in Saint-Noel Academy.

While Mia is still the dumb, selfish, and vain princess that she is, she's showing significant growth in this volume. The trip to Remno forces her to spend more time with Sion, which gives her the opportunity to confront his view of justice. It gives more depth to her execution scene since Mia was never given the warning nor the chance to reform, and as Sion struggles with his brand of justice and superiority, it also leads to Mia learning to forgive Sion for her death. We even get a glimpse of what happened to Sion in the first timeline. The book also introduces us to Dion, the soldier who had the honor of beheading Mia. Naturally, she's holding that against him and finds it hard to like him. For now. Unfortunately for her, he's slowly but surely cementing his place as yet another rabid Mia fan.

There are many times when Mia's fans started to question her less than stellar behavior, but it only leads to even more hilarious misunderstandings that only feed their delusion. The writing is still as sarcastic as before, but it does give Mia credit when she actually does what needs to be done. I really like how it smoothly transitions to a more serious tone when necessary, and switches back to the usual wittiness right after it's over. Since Mia has warmed up to Sion a lot in this volume, hopefully we'll get to see her bonding with Tiona, Rafina, and Dion too in the next books.