Blurb:

OLD FATES AWAKEN. DEADLY PASSIONS MEET DEADLIER DEALS.

Suri survived the fallout of Queen Lera’s ceremony, but now finds herself deep in unfamiliar territory—the City of the Damned. The City’s deadly ruler, Kol, believes she's the key to breaking the curse upon the desert wasteland. Suri just wants to save her brother and forge her own destiny away from the growing temptations of Kol’s court.

As dangerous threats loom, Suri discovers her unique blood bond might not simply save her own skin: it could be the only way to stop Queen Lera. Spellbinding balls, glamours, blood witches, and prophecies await... but only if Suri steps deeper into Kol’s dark history.

In the tantalising second book in the Amefyre series, passions will rise as Kol and Suri balance on a knife-edge between desire and disaster.

Review:

R.A. Sandpiper’s debut novel, A Pocket of Lies, was a breath of fresh air for me earlier this year. A grim fantasy novel full of betrayals, angst, and bad decisions, with a hint of a slow burn enemies to lovers romance. Let’s be clear, in book one, there was VERY little in the way of romance. From Sandpiper’s marketing posts, book two was supposed to heat up romance-wise. Did that happen? Read on!

We’re brought into Suri’s world, and Suri, well, she’s a screw up. About the only thing she can do right is cause problems, and luck never sides in her favor. She is rage personified, and she sometimes lets that rage get in the way of logical thinking, which is nice to see. People are idiots and make mistakes, so it’s cool to see a character that is a screw up and absolutely not a perfect chosen one. 

Suri’s barely survived the events of book one, and now she’s living in the City of the Damned with Kol, the Lord of Death, and his associates. Kol might have a title like Lord of Death, sure, but he’s a good dude. Yes, he’s morally gray and can kill people instantly with his powers, but he cares for his friends and found family, and he seems to care for Suri as well.  

The issue at hand? The evil Fae queen who Suri and Kol had barely stopped in book one has amped up her efforts to get what she wants. I won’t say much more about that because of spoilers, but what she wants is NOT good. 

They go on several different short trips (including heisty moments!) to try to put together a plan of attack, one of which is visiting the King of the Fae, who is incredibly witty, just the way I like my characters. The Fae world is gloriously decadent and just lots of fun.  We also get a bit more of Scilla, Kol’s friend and Suri’s mortal enemy from book one, who is stuck with Suri for a decent amount of the book. 

Romance? Spice? There’s definitely a bit more of a will-they//won’t-they romance going on here, with lots of yearning and self-doubt. In terms of spice, there are perhaps two scenes, but they’re handled well and fit with the story.

The world Sandpiper has created has a cool elemental-ish magic system–but with a twist–and the setting moves from desserts, to frigid cities, and the aforementioned Fae realm.  Sandpiper isn’t reinventing the fantasy wheel here, which works perfectly, as this is a character driven story, not a sprawling 12 book epic fantasy. We’re here for Suri and her bad decisions and snark. And for Kol, who has a really cool backstory that we get in this book. We get to see them in some calmer moments here in book 2 and those moments really shine!

Sandpiper is an excellent writer. Snappy dialogue, deft description, and verbal twists and turns throughout. This is not a happy story, but Sandpiper has an excellent wit that shines in the dialogue especially. 

One aspect of book one that I wasn’t totally in love with was how Suri sometimes got out of bad decisions too easily. That’s not the case here. You can tell Sandpiper is getting tighter with plotting and characterization. I did feel like book 2 lost a little bit of steam around the midway point, but things picked up to a thrilling conclusion. Seriously, when you get to the end, you’re going to be so upset that you have to wait until next May to read the final book in the trilogy. 

To conclude, this is an excellent grim fantasy full of twists, turns, witty remarks, dark schemes, and amazing characters. I highly recommend it to all fantasy readers. And yes, there’s some romance. However, even if you’re not a fan of romance, this is still a fantastic fantasy novel that deserves to be read more widely!