Flight of the Raven- Morgan L. Busse

My Rating: 3 Stars

Description: Exiled and on the run, Selene Ravenwood is in search of the real reason her family was given the gift of dreamwalking but first she must adapt to her marriage with the man she was originally assigned to kill. With war impending and a dark being after her gift, she finds herself at a crossroads but time is running out and soon her choice will be made for her.

My Thoughts: I did not like this book as much as I had hoped. Unfortunately, the issues I had with the first book are still present in this one. As with the last, I still found Selene to be a difficult character to relate with. Whereas before it was because she was blindly following her mother's orders in the beginning of the book, this time it was because I felt like her quest for answers held no sense of urgency. While she does take some steps toward her goal, most of the story revolved around her relationship with Damien. Which is a relationship I loved, but I wish that she had done more outside of that.

We know that off page, Damien is making plans to stop the Empire and that Selene is reading ancient texts about the house gifts. However, neither of them ever really discuss these things with each other, and no one else is enlisted to help Selene scour the texts for the information she needs. And while this later part is because both are afraid of what people will think of Selene's dreamwalking, I was still frustrated that what seems to be a religious question (what was the Light's initial intention for dreamwalking?) was never addressed to the religious leaders they interacted with.

For a fantasy about magical gifts and war, a large portion of this book was dedicated to Damien and Selene coming to know and care for each other. And as someone who is always a sucker for a married couple as the main characters, I did enjoy this aspect. But I also wish that it had been drawn out longer and that more happened in the story in between. Even their falling in love could have been fleshed out more, since there are entire days of their relationship which are skipped over. As a reader, I want to see what Selene and Damien find to talk about for hours in his study, I want to see him show her the beach, and for her to gradually open up to him about who she is beneath her heart of ice.

I still love Damien's character and found his thoughts about his new wife to be adorable. And this book was a pretty easy read, promising a better book to come next. I just wish that this had not hit the middle book slump.

I have provided an honest review after having received an ecopy through Netgalley.