Lenka S. reviewed on 5/27/2022 + 823 more book reviews

The Sequel to The Native Star , is unlike its predecessor. This is not a rehash of the same adventure by any stretch. The first, this one kept me well entertained from start to finish, and so did this one. Mostly. It flowed flawlessly.

CAUTION I GIVE PLOT SPOILERS HERE
A month has passed since the adventures that brought Emily from Lost Pine to New York City, but navigating New York magical society is as taxing and treacherous as anything she's faced so far. Emily's future mother-in-law is a sociopathic socialite who is not at all pleased with her only son's choice of a bride. But thankfully, this story is not filled with tea parties and stoires of the upper class...

Dreadnought Stanton--Emily's fiance--has a dark past which has by no means given up all its secrets. Though many have been hinted at, and an insightful reader could pick most of them them up. Since he is a Magical anomaly, he can handle Black matter without being harmed by it. He was in his youth at the "blood academy" generals wife lover which the reader could pick up on in the previous book. He killed people when he practiced blood magic (Who hasn't guessed that by now hasn't been reading this story). And he could have been cured of his impending anomality a.i. impending death by asking his "Imagination Magic University President" to cure him. Price... no more magic, ever.

And Emily's own past may hold answers that a shadowy group of Russian scientists will give anything to possess. Past she doesn't remember. Because her clever teacher has taken them and store them away, since they were very terrible for her as a child. When she gets them as a potion, she drinks and she remembers. Her mother is a good person haunted once month for a week by vengeful spirit of a man witch. Apparently her family is famous witch hunters (think Salem USA) where they got cursed by one of the powerful witches about to be burned. Her father is the Russian Sini-Miri who created the formula to not poison magic but put it back into balance so no large chunks can be torn out of the living spirit (Magic). As it was in the times of the old. When it was in balance. And in accordance to the name of his office, which is the name of the God OATHs (and his legend where he hid his beloveds heart in the long hair of a witch.) Her father hides the coveted formula on a pair of hair chopsticks Emily uses to bind her hair. And he burns her scalp with some compound (at age 5) to change her hair genetic makeup, to carry the part 2 of the formula.

Emily will have to brave all these challenges, and etiquette lessons, mostly alone--not to mention an ancient sect of Aztec blood-sorcerers bent on plunging the world into apocalypse--as she attempts to unlock the mystery that will both save her and Dreadnaught's future, not to mention the entire world. The Sini-Mira Russians finally show up in their full scope, and we learn that they are not these sinister loons we were meant to think they were in the first book. They are worshipers of Mother and are not against small witchcraft. But anything on industrial scale disrupts the balance and through their connection to the Spirit, they can feel her suffering. But right now they have to help Dreadnought Stanton, the man they think is worthless **** to gain control of the Institute that is crumbling around his ears, so that he can use the power of the institute to fight the Aztec Goddess bent on ending life, everywhere, so that she can find (reanimate the soul) of her lover (dead for a few hundred years - killed by the Spanish explorers).
NO END SPOLER - HAHA

SPOILERS END

CRITISISM:
I think that though it is an interesting book, the lead couple here does not lead. They are barely ever together, and their interaction is a bit forced. Emily acts like lovestruck idiot at times. And her wit and smarts sometimes also go out the window. Causing death and destruction. When everyone is looking for a secret formula/poison and she finds secret encrypted code and asks someone to translate it does not strike her that this might be the coveted formula. The man and his entire family gets slaughtered because of this. The driver who took her to the shady part of town gets fired. She makes no amends....
The book flows and reads well but aside of the little umm heart stopping adventures that really are nothing in the big scheme of things (they read really well though), they take up the bulk of the book. The end-end is the last 20% of the book, and feels unfinished and rushed.

CONCLUSION: There is a definite conclusion that could be construed as "The End", but from what the author has stated, this may not be the case if she has her way. I encourage other prospective readers to read The Native Star prior to delving in.

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