I was so excited and intrigued to read this series when I first picked it up, but my interest is waning. I love seeing how she incorporates Celtic and Briton history into the story, but it doesn’t really go as in-depth as I’d like, and it feels a little bit too much like reality right now.
Synopsis
Picking up from where we left off, Cassandra, Marcus and Devyn failed to flee Londinium to safety and await a trial to determine their fate. But with an unlikely accomplice, the trio escapes and travel through the land to Cassandra’s and Marcus’ respective homes. Along the way, Cassandra discovers who she really is, so when her secret is revealed, her world is once again thrown into chaos and she must choose carefully who she can trust, for not everyone around her can be trusted…
First Impressions
I hate surprise plot twist endings – I’ll explain why down below. The story wasn’t quite as strong as the first book, which can often happen in sequels, and while the ending thoroughly annoyed me, I do wanna find out what happens in the end.
Thoughts
What I Liked:
- Cassandra discovering her identity – I liked that she figured out who she was after being lied to and manipulated for so long
- World building – it wasn’t as good as the first book, but I still liked it and could see where the author had drawn inspiration from
What I Disliked:
- Marcus – I really liked his character development, but it was all undone for the sake of a surprise plot twist ending
Characterisation: I preferred Cassandra in this book as she discovered who she really was and enjoyed her newfound freedom. But her entire storyline revolving around men dictating her life again – really?! I would’ve preferred to hear about her history, or her to spend more time with her brother, who I have issues with, but instead she just seems to mope and get frustrated with why nobody will tell her anything – a valid concern of hers.
I felt like we didn’t really know much about Marcus before, and I was okay with that since he seemed like a side character anyway. But we were given more depth to Marcus’ character in this book, which I really appreciated. I liked that he was interested in how these people treated the illness and seemed to want to help them, and in a sense, I can see what she was trying to achieve by his betrayal in the ending. Except she didn’t explain it well, so there was this disconnect between the caring version of Marcus and the ending version, who seemed cold-hearted and ruthless for no reason other than to shock the reader. Now, if Cassandra had noticed a few subtle differences in how he behaved with the druids versus everyone else, or even that something wasn’t quite right, maybe the ending would’ve worked. But it just didn’t.
As for Devyn, he was barely in this book. Considering the lengths he’d gone to to find Cassandra and rescue her, he seemed inconsequential in this book. He kept separating himself from Cassandra, telling her they couldn’t be together but never really explaining why? I understand the importance of class here, but when Cassandra revealed her secret, there was literally no reason why they couldn’t be together. Considering his ending too, I’m just so annoyed with the way his character, who was a prominent main character in the previous book, was reduced to an inconsequential side character, if even that.
Gideon – my god, he was so confusing. Cassandra kept describing how arrogant he was and how much she didn’t like him, but she had a lot of chats with him that went kinda deep? And he obviously cared about her because he kept appearing and warning her. But here’s what I don’t get: why pretend to be intimate with her, knowing you both feel some sexual tension, then be so reluctant to do anything in the end?
As for the other myriad of characters, why would you make Cassandra’s brother so two dimensional and cold towards his own sister? Why plant that Fidelma and Callum are suspicious then do nothing with that? Granted, maybe that will come up in the third book, but if not, I’m gonna be pissed. There were more characters, so I can understand why they didn’t have much of a personality, but sometimes less is more, y’know?
Story Structure: I still think it was a solid enough story structure, but man, I didn’t like the climax/ending at all. The pacing was a bit slow in places, but the story did keep consistently going and throwing obstacles in Cassandra’s way, so I don’t really have complaints on a story level up until the ending.
I hate surprise plot twist endings. TV writers increasingly are using them, and even Disney is now trying to use them in all their animated films, but it only works a fraction of the time. In fact, if you keep using it as a plot device, audiences aren’t going to be surprised by the plot twist ending because they’ll expect it and just feel disappointed and cheated by it, like I did with this ending.
Clara O’Connor is a TV writer, so no doubt she has been influenced by this in her books, but shoving a surprise plot twist ending in because you want to seem smarter than the reader only works if you drop hints throughout that, upon re-reading, you could pick out and go ‘oh! how did I not notice that before?!’ But Clara O’Connor didn’t do that, so I’m now wondering whether I want to keep reading if she’s just going to use the same ending again.
Other Thoughts: Once again, I thought there were too many adverbs, but not quite as noticeable as before. Or maybe I just adapted to them. In my particular copy of the book, there were several mistakes I noticed, usually missing punctuation. I understand how easy it is to miss them, but more than about three mistakes in one book is bad.
Summary
The storyline itself is still solid and worth reading for, but the worldbuilding isn’t quite as good, and the characters seem to change their personality when it’s convenient for the plot. I hate surprise plot twist endings, but that’s purely personal preference, and I’m actually intrigued enough to keep reading. I’ve come too far now not to find out what happens in the end.