The Empress of Time
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Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
"Sharp and seductive...a fantasy with teeth." --Julie C. Dao, author of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns on The Keeper of Night In this riveting sequel to The Keeper of Night, a half Reaper, half Shinigami soul collector must defend her title as Japan's Death Goddess from those who would see her--and all of Japan--destroyed. Death is her dynasty. Ren Scarborough is no longer the girl who was chased out of England--she is the Goddess of Death ruling Japan's underworld. But Reapers have recently been spotted in Japan, and it's only a matter of time before Ivy, now Britain's Death Goddess, comes to claim her revenge. Ren's last hope is to appeal to the god of storms and seas, who can turn the tides to send Ivy's ship away from Japan's shores. But he'll only help Ren if she finds a sword lost thousands of years ago--an impossible demand. Together with the moon god Tsukuyomi, Ren ventures across the country in a race against time. As her journey thrusts her in the middle of scheming gods and dangerous Yokai demons, Ren will have to learn who she can truly trust--and the fate of Japan hangs in the balance. Read the entire Keeper of Night duology! The Keeper of Night The Empress of Time
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2 primary booksThe Keeper of Night is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Kylie Lee Baker.
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It might be more of a 3.5.
I've been pretty bad this year at keeping up with series and that's what happened with this finale/sequel and I couldn't read it before the release despite having both a digital and audio arc. The Keeper of Night was one of my top favorite reads of last year, so when I finally felt in the mood for this book, I finished it way quicker than I expected.
While the first book was about Ren's descent into darkness, I think this was about what she is going in the darkness now that she is all alone. I can't say that she has entirely become cruel or that she is a very bad person, but her compassion mostly only extends to Neven and what she can do to save him. The love depicted in this series is all angsty and gut wrenching, but no way any less impactful while reading. I don't know if I like Ren a lot anymore but there's no doubt that I still wanted her to succeed and protect her brother, gain the acceptance that she so craves, and make a home for herself.
But the plot itself didn't feel as exciting as I found the first book. It almost was like Ren didn't know much about what she had to do and was scrambling across Japan to figure it out - which felt too reminiscent of the first book. I also think meeting all the different Yokai in the first book felt exciting, so there wasn't much new world building this time. Meeting a couple of new gods was fun but again I got the feeling it didn't add much to the story.
Overall, while I did enjoy following the characters - old and new - again and see what they've been upto, the not very substantial plot slightly disappointed me. I think I just had too many expectations after loving the first one a lot. But I did love the narration of Rebecca Yeo in the audiobook and she made it a pretty fun and quick listen. Despite my conflicting thoughts about this book, I'm still definitely looking forward to the author's new series next year.
