Children of Virtue and Vengence by Tomi Adeyemi

Summary from Goodreads:

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Review:

This was a good book 2. It wasn’t quite as good as I wanted it to be, but it was still pretty solid. It took me a little too long to get my bearings and remember all the characters and where things were left after book 1. Once I finally put all the pieces together, I was there and ready for action, but action was kind of a long time coming.

There’s a lot of slowness and sadness in this book. There’s more death. And poor Zelie is just so tired of failing over and over. It’s hard for her to see all her accomplishments from book 1 because of all of the loved ones she’s lost and the person who’s betrayed her. She’s a bit broken in this second book. She’s less sure. I found myself actually liking Amari more than Zelie for much of the book.

I wanted to slap some sense/strength back into Zelie. And I think Amari and everyone else wanted to do this too. On the other hand because of Zelie’s attitude we get to meet the rebellion. And they are awesome. The magic is awesome. Watching Zelie’s people embrace magic again is just the best.

A lot goes down politically and it felt a little more like a soap opera of a political event than an actual civil war. Everything that happened within the family of the monarchy just seemed over-the-top and cliché. Gone was the scariness of book 1, and it was kind of replaced with an evil Disney villain instead….and not in a good way.

Beside that though, I couldn’t put the book down. I love the mythology and folklore behind it all. I love the cast of characters and how flawed they are. I love seeing them realize each other’s flaws and learn to work around them. It’s not easy sailing for this friendship. The last 50 pages was a whirlwind of action, and oh my goodness that ending! I had to re-read it a few times to make sure it actually happened. It’s going to be a long wait for the last book.

All in all, this was a solid book 2. It wasn’t as good as book 1 (though they usually aren’t). The characters were amazing. The world was even more developed and fascinating than before. I liked the suspense and action (though it did take a hot minute to develop). The monarchy/bad guy situations was a little too cliché for my liking, but who knows what will happen in book 3. I have high expectations for it. I give this one an 8/10.