i personally don’t want to make this review too long because i’ve already discussed a lot of my issues with this duology as a whole in my review for the first book, chaos & flame, found here. but let’s just say a lot of my issues with the disability rep and the romance and even the world-building stay the same, if not are amplified more in the sequel.

however, i think overall, the premise of the second book is MUCH stronger than the first one. i was worried about how things were going to fall out after the ending events, which did have me pretty piqued. and i think the sequel did an incredible job following the aftermath of the first book. the lore of the world became so so much more interesting to me, especially since we had some more insight into aurora’s story (but unfortunately not much into her motives). the concept of the regent ephemerals was an incredible addition to the world’s political and foundational background.

did this additional also make darling even more of a chose one. absolutely. that’s where i struggled to separate the fact that her disability was ultimately shown as a superpower, especially since it was kind of, sort of, even more so in the second book. in this book, we learn that her blindness is essentially magic itself. and she is the only one who can repair it. so… still not really ideal in my book.

lets just put it this way, if you liked the concept of the first book and can put aside any issues with insta-love and poorly done disability rep then i definitely think you will like the second book even more. in my opinion it had a lot more going for it, despite the flaws from the first book carrying over. i really do implore you to read the review i wrote for the first book if you’re curious about my thoughts in more full. this isn’t much more i could’ve add about this book that i hadn’t touched upon there besides that i liked the world building much more in finale.