This is the wrap up to the Empress of a Thousand Skies duology.

Love that the book has a planetary map and a major characters list with their pertinent info in the front, that helps keep unfamiliar names straight.

I feel like I missed something in the Julian, storyline, though. He went from a loyal friend to straight hatred. Yes, I understand why but I still felt that he switched completely over when I felt he should have been more conflicted and not so one sided. This may lead me to reread this duology in the future, lol.

I like the way the author wove all the storylines together. When you are anxiously awaiting for Aly and/or Dahlen to say the right things so they can put all the pieces together and save the galaxy!
Well, I love that kind of anxiety :)

If you like this you might want to try The Last of her name by Jessica Khoury. It has the same energy. ( )

A well wrapped up duology!

I enjoyed this one as much as the first installment reading it in under 24 hours. Again pretty much the same well thought out characters previously met along with a couple of new ones that are just as awesome. Starting where the first book left off this installment is fast paced & action packed from beginning to end. I also found myself to be more emotional at certain points in the story where I didn't find this with the first book.

Overall a well thought out & perfectly executed duology perfect for all space fans. ( )

Oh man, what. a. LET DOWN.

Kara knows she's the presumed dead Empress and while she knows she should step up and take the throne it's not what she asked for nor something she wants to do. Alyosha is still with her and helping her find a device the woman she thought was her mother invented. They need it in order to stop the madman who wants to mind wipe and control everyone in the Empire.

Rhee is still dealing with being Empress but now she has to find her sister and hold back Nero from winning over her people and atoning for killing her best friend's father now that he wants revenge.

Both sisters are on a race against time to stop the deceptive media star Nero from taking over the empire.

I'm not sure where everything went so wrong. For one, I thought it was too fast-paced especially in the end where it felt like everything happened all at once and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. There was so much going on that I got lost sometimes and I stopped caring about some characters. Sadly I didn't feel satisfied enough. It was still kind of this big space adventure but at some point, Kara and Aly were split up which made it even harder for me to keep up with who wanted to read more about. I don't know. Everything wrapped up a little too nicely but by then I didn't care. ( )

A strong follow-up to Empress of a Thousand Skies and one that left me with the vague feeling that I was reading a retelling of Star Wars with a few new elements incorporated into the story. I did like how the story alternated between the characters and particularly how the two long-lost sisters were able to finally come together. A fun read and not overly long like a lot of books in this genre. I'd recommend this one to fans of YA fantasy and science fiction. ( )