Description: What happens when happily ever after starts to unravel?
Eliyana Ember doesn't believe in true love. Not anymore. After defeating her grandfather and saving the Second Reflection, El only trusts what's right in front of her. The tangible. The real. Not some unexplained Kiss of Infinity she once shared with the ghost of a boy she's trying to forget. She has more important things to worry about--like becoming queen of the Second Reflection, a role she is so not prepared to fill.
Now that the Verity is intertwined with her soul and Joshua's finally by her side, El is ready to learn more about her mysterious birth land, the land she now rules. So why does she feel like something--or someone--is missing?
When the thresholds begin to drain and the Callings, those powerful magical gifts, begin to fail, El wonders if her link to Ky Rhyen may have something to do with it. For light and darkness cannot coexist. She needs answers before the Callings disappear altogether. Can El find a way to sever her connection to Ky and save the Reflections--and keep herself from falling for him in the process?
My Thoughts: I am aware that most people awaited this novel with high anticipation. However, despite my moderate enjoyment of the first, I was not one of them. I suspected that the things I enjoyed about the first would be undone and, unfortunately, I was right. The complex love triangle that so intrigued me in the first book, now felt forced as I wondered why she felt drawn to either guy. Both are at times emotionally distant and their "love" seems to come as a game of who "owns" her. While I ultimately prefer Ky over Joshua, I could not find it in me to care if they ended up together. Because while they are concerned with who her heart belongs to, the world is literally crashing down around them, and all the reader gets to see of it is a few crashing stones and some powers that no longer work.
As with the first, the same issue exists where characters refuse to share pertinent information with each other. And as with the first, this creates conflict where there never should have been one. While the fact that Joshua does this can be explained as the Void causing him to make selfish and harmful decisions, the same excuse does not hold up for anyone else, especially when they keep information from their Queen who otherwise could be working to fix the problem if she knew just what the problem was.
The true place where I felt that this novel failed its predecessor, however, was in the organization of scenes. While the previously mentioned issues are common for YA fiction, and honestly will not be a problem for many people, the scenes were something that only made the story all the more confusing. Throughout, both El and Joshua tell parts of their POV's through memories. However, while a few of these memories add to the story and are well led into, most of them are poorly inserted, leaving confusion as to whether they are current events or ones in the past. And very little, if anything, would have been lost if Ky's POV had been cut out all together.
The story is meant to be like a real life fairytale. But unlike a fairytale, there is very little whimsy to the story world or the plot. In the first, there was some, but in this... I don' know, I just could not get behind the Kiss of Infinity or the origin of the Verity and Void that is supposed to explain why love is such an all important force in this universe. Rather than feeling whimsical, it felt forced. But while I would not recommend this, there are many others that would.
I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of this book through the Fiction Guild.
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