Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Azantian Trilogy. I bought this book for my Kindle.

Thoughts: This book picks up a short time after the last book finished. Margrete is in Azantian with Bash. Margrete continues to try to learn to control her newfound abilities, while Bash’s struggles with his darkness are worsening. When they receive news that monsters are rising from the seas and attacking the human lands, Bash, Margrete and crew leave on a quest to stop them.

The crew find themselves on a dangerous island where they are forced through a series of trials. The trials will help Magrete to unlock her full potential while revealing a number of secrets from Bash’s past.

I enjoyed this book but not quite as much as the first book. This book does have a lot of wonderful adventure, action and magic. I enjoyed the characters’ trials on the island and the way the story around the Gods is developing. There are a lot of romantic (very adult) love scenes between Bash and Margrete. This felt odd to me because this book is very young adult in tone but had these very adult parts to it.

I struggled a bit with how much time was spent in Margrete and Bash’s heads with them thinking how wonderful the other is. There was a lot of “I love you”, “No, I love you more” back and forth between them. Yes, we get it…they find each other fascinating and love each other a lot. I just felt that there was way too much of this and it distracted from more exciting parts of the story. I am all for some sweet and loving romance but it got sooo prevalent I felt like it was weighing down the rest of the story. I kept imagining how the characters traveling with them must have felt….

The story ends at a cliffhanger and with a number of new issues presented. I normally don’t like cliffhanger endings but in this case it felt appropriate because Margrete and Bash were kind of entering a new phase in their lives as well.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. The writing flows well, there is good world-building, an intriguing plot, fun adventure, and a lot of action. I did think the lovey dovey gooiness between Margrete and Bash overwhelmed the story at times and would have liked a little less time spent on these two rehashing how much they love each other in their heads. However, I enjoyed everything else about this and am curious to see how the third book wraps up this series. I would recommend this to those who enjoy adult fantasy romance with some adventure. ( )

Thank you LibraryThing and City Owl Press for the early access to this book for an honest review.

This book picks up just after the The girl Who belonged to the sea. Margret and Bash are back in Azantian, trying to adjust to their changes.
After discovering the sea monsters are attacking humans and leaving a lot of casualties behind, a crew of Azantians leave to fight them and the adventure begins.

What I enjoyed:
- fast paced story with different POV. In addition to Margret and Bash we now see some chapters through Bay’s perspective.
- Bash character evolution. This was really interesting and I think it was well done. He is definitely my favorite part of the book.
- We finally have a good villain.
- The twists were well executed, albeit a bit predictable.
- There was a lot of action which kept me invested in the story

What I think it could have been done better:
- The trilogy title sounds very misleading. So far, the story has nothing to do with Azantia. I have the same doubts I had in the previous book as the author didn’t add new information to the world building. This details are irrelevant as the story keeps evolving solely around the romance.
- The story does not work if you take the romance out I don’t like romances where the characters lie or hide information from the other. It’s just not how relationships are supposed to work.
- The sea monsters and human casualties are an irrelevant detail to this book.

The major problem with this book were my expectations.
I still think Katherine Quinn imagination would create a very interesting fantasy book. Unfortunately, the author didn’t develop what I considered the most interesting parts of the story and focused only on the romance, which let me a bit disappointed.

However, I believe this book will be interesting for romance readers ( )

I was so excited for this sequel that I dove in without even skimming the synopsis, so I wasn't expecting the entire plot to revolve around an island of danger and death. There's jungle survival, mythology come to life, and a whopping dose of creep and horror to complement Margrete and Bash's undimmed romance. While I skimmed a bit - again, didn't realize the island was so important - and the story uses one of my least favorite tropes character discovers they are the reincarnation of someone special, there's lots to love for fans of the series, including POV chapters from Bay.

**Thanks to LibraryThing for the ARC**.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I received this as part of the LT early reviewer program. I took a chance on reading this even though I haven’t read the first book in the series and while some of the back story would have been helpful I still found this to be an easy to follow tale. The pacing got a bit off for me in the middle but picked up for a great ending. I found the world building to be strong. My only real complaint was a lack of connection with the male MC but I think that was more my fault for not reading the first book. Will likely pick up the rest of the series soon. ( )

I'm so glad to be given the opportunity to read this second book of a trilogy by Katherine Quinn. I've enjoyed her prose and the way she weaves her fantasy from the first book, The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea, which are quite enthralling and engaging! In this second one, it sure takes on a darker tone when Bash was separated from Margrete. So much happened which was quite heartbreaking and it was definitely a test of their love for both. The adventures they endured just to be together in the end was so unexpected. I just can't wait for the last in the trilogy, for the conclusion to close this chapter. ( )