The Words of Kings and Prophets

What a sequel!

I was hooked from the first page of this book.

The characters leapt from the page and while told in first person, there was no doubt to who's head I was in. I love both Gormflaith and Foedla. Gormflaith feeling trapped and caged by the men in her life, was so fun to read about. How she grows and starts to do things for herself and not others. The relationships she has... I was glued to the page.

Gormflaith is a character I knew I would love but Foedla took my heart. Kind and sweet characters are not who I find myself liking and yet I love her.

Both characters are complex, and opposites of each other in more ways than their personalities.it makes for a great story. I love reading about different persepectives. Not to mention the plot and politics!

The worldbuilding was effortless. The writing flowed but the characters are the strongest part of this story.

This is by no means a fast book, but the moments between the characters, the hints at what is to come pulled me through the book in the best way.

The ending chapter has me salivating for book 3 as my suspicions of what could happen could come to pass and I just know I'll have the best time reading.

A huge step up from book one. Highly recommend.

I had the best time reading this.

Another amazing, immersive and fast paced home run! The story is brilliant and I think the characters have levelled up a few times from book 1! I love Fódla, how can you not, just a wonderful person! I also love Gormflaith but only to read about, she terrifies me even more in this book, and all the others!

Cannot wait for book 3, i need to know

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so of course I had to reread Children of Gods and Fighting Men before this came out.

Since it's a sequel, I'm not going into any details, but this was fantastic! I love Fódla, so her perspective is my favorite, but I love to hate Gormflaith so her perspective is almost as good.

Tensions are high among the Descendants. Most of them are ready to live among the mortals. Their biggest problem is Tomas. He will do unspeakable things to get what he wants.

Because of his acts, Gormflaith is more powerful than ever.
Will the Fomorians finally find the Descendants or will they destroy each other first?

I love this series so much! I just finished it and want to read it again!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.

This was a very good follow up! I liked it more than book one, the magic and lore kicked it up a notch, the villain was more interesting and engaging, and I actually rooted for Gormflaith this time! (I mean, I did last time too, but against my will).

My cons for this series remain the same, however. Several first person POVs is just hard for me, and I still don't think the two main POVs sound different enough from each other, which can make it hard for me to ground myself. This was much better in this one, though, due to being more familiar with their various supporting cast. And I still find Fodla to be very passive. She spends most of this novel having others once again make decisions for her...I suppose that makes it better when she actually DOES make decisions, but following such a passive character can be frustrating for me.

 As a continuation of the first book, this functions perfectly well. It focuses a lot more on intrigue and developing the established characters, which makes for a somewhat less action-packed read but still entirely fun read, in my opinion. Reading how Gormflaith and F??dla develop was absolutely fun: Gormflaith still has more layers than F??dla, but F??dla experiences some solid character development in this book, which is where much of the fun reading her derives. 
We also get Colmon as a narrator in this one. In the last book he was a somewhat minor character, but this time around he gets narrator status and it looks like he???ll be developed into another protagonist for the third book. I look forward to it, not least because his perspective is so different from F??dla???s and Gormflaith???s.    There was also an interesting dialogue in this book about oppressive systems, and how it can be hard to dismantle such systems when one is benefitting from them. It???s only a moment in the book, but it does address an element of the previous book (and the actual historical milieu in which this series is set) that I think other readers wanted the author to deal with a bit more explicitly. I can???t say for absolute certain if it was handled well, but I will say that it gave me food for thought, especially when thinking about that element in the context of the history of the period, and what certain characters then promised to do about it. 
I think that the main gripe I have about this is that it really feels like a transition book, moving characters so they???re in specific places (literally and metaphorically speaking) as preparation for a big finale or big change of events in the next book. This is just a small complaint though, as I liked the book regardless, but it???s definitely got that vibe. 
Overall, this was a solid continuation of the previous book. Characters grow in their own ways, and the plot continues to be a fun ride. I???m looking forward to seeing how Colmon steps up in the next book in the series (along with another character I won't mention because spoilers). Still, this does feel a lot like a book that???s meant to put particular characters in specific places in preparation for something big going down, so readers looking for something a little more action-packed might not be entirely happy with this one.