The Bitter Twins

4 - 4.5 ⭐️

This was a great second entry - we got way more revelations (some of which straight up crazy), way more character and relationship complexity and all things hit all the fans.

Beware though, this was a rather frustrating read at times, mostly because so many bad things happened in so many unexpected ways.

P.S.: Vincenza “Vintage” De Grazon is a saint and deserves way better!!!

This was a repeated DNF starting in February. But at page 250 I finally pushed forward due to increased action and at page 400 figured out my issue: every character was in conflict with each other and this really put me off. But wow, that action really picked up and the last half was fantastic. “The Ninth Rain” felt a bit more like an adventure and mystery, while this one was a bit more character development (not in a great way) and it turned into a battle. I'm definitely excited for the final book.

Compared to the first in the trilogy, this was more solid than compelling. It felt like some events in this were simply there to propel the plot, rather than being natural extensions of the plot. Also, I am not entirely convinced by the way to action scenes are written; they feel underwritten and confused (one scene of conflict felt more like slapstick than action, and I am not sure that was intended).

In any event, this kept me involved enough to want to read the conclusion of the trilogy (if only to discover if the slightly weird reveal that Eborans were created by aliens pays off in some way).