Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Series: The Queen of the Tearling

Genre: Fantasy

Age Group: Adult

Published: June 2016 (Harper)

Hardcover - 515 pages

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Rating: 4/5 

Trigger Warnings: Abusive relationships (physical & sexual)

Kelsea Glynn is the Queen of the Tearling. Despite her youth, she has quickly asserted herself as a fair, just and powerful ruler.

However, power is a double-edged sword, and small actions can have grave consequences. In trying to do what is right - stopping a vile trade in humankind - Kelsea has crossed the Red Queen, a ruthless monarch whose rule is bound with dark magic and the spilling of blood. The Red Queen's armies are poised to invade the Tearling, and it seems nothing can stop them.

Though I've knocked a star off of my rating, I don't want it to appear as if I didn't enjoy this book. I still love this series. I adore the characters and I'm anxious to read the final book. However, I didn't wholeheartedly love this book the way I did book one. There were just a few issues I want to point out.

In the first book I thought Kelsea made some rash decisions, but none of them were outrageous and I believed them. In this second book a few of her decisions seemed wild even after Kelsea was established as a risk taker. It pulled me out of the story to question her actions and how daring (and sometimes stupid) I believed her to be.

Johansen took a really interesting approach to the history of this world and I really appreciated how we learned about the past. I was skeptical at first, but the new perspective that was introduced really grew on me. When I was reading Kelsea's chapters I was just as, if not more, anxious to get back to the other perspective because Johansen left on a lot of cliff-hangers in those chapters.  Also I found these sections especially chilling because of the recent political climate.

Overall I really enjoyed this installment. It was a strong second book and, though the plot moved forward slowly, it didn't suffer from second book syndrome. These was a lot of world building and essential plot points I had questioned in the first book. I am anxious to see how this will wrap up because I still feel like we have a long way to go.

My Last Review ----> Stray by Rachel Vincent