I really enjoyed A Broken Blade, and was happy to find that A Shadow Crown improved on almost all aspects. I'd say it's slower paced with less action but there is a lot of focus on Keera and his history and healing journey and because of that, it grows apart from being overly tropey like the first book was but it does suffer from being slow since there's a lot of relationship building. This series warms my heart and the found family is one of the best I've read in this genre. While still not super unique, there's enough differences from other books in the genre that I still find it wholly entertaining and captivating.