28 Apr 2017

Review – Among the Flames by Shelby K. Morrison

Title: Among the Flames (Legend of the Liberator #2)

Author: Shelby K. Morrison

Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis:  

After fleeing her home in Tharien with the Emperor's forces hot on her heels, Aia Wynnald has only one goal: To end the two-thousand-year-old discrimination against Benders—a race of beings like her, with a misunderstood gift. But when the Emperor’s Church of Mighty retaliates with a new threat, her noble plans are put on hold.

With her companion Cole Balain, a former enemy, by her side, Aia must halt the devastation triggered by her well-meaning actions. The only way she can fight the Church is with the help of a disenchanted group of rebel Benders who'd sooner submit to their fate than follow Aia's lead.

Can she inspire them to fight and work together to resolve this new crisis, or will her ingrained submissive nature bring her, and the Benders of Dyel, to their knees?

My Thoughts:

After reading the first book in the Legend of the Liberator trilogy I couldn’t wait to continue reading the story, but unfortunately a couple of years passed until the second instalment debuted. It has arrived at last and it was very exciting to re-join Aia and Cole, to follow a newfound band of rebels that was determined to gain freedom.

I really like Shelby K. Morrison’s writing, it flows so nicely, it’s very dynamic and makes you want to keep reading. Even though I didn’t have much time for reading recently it was no problem for me to read bigger chunks of this novel at once.

I’m still in love with this fantasy world, the benders, how the legend from the name of the series is being created on the pages. In Among the Flames I appreciated that the other kingdoms in the empire were shown to us. There were a lot more travelling than in the first book, that made me happy, since in From the Ashes the characters didn’t move around much.

A lot of new characters were introduced, I enjoyed the variety and my favourite new face was Fynris. I found his double agent status intriguing and hoped he would make the right decision all along.

The thing is, I gave Among the Flames three stars, but the reason why I didn’t give it a higher rating is due to personal taste. First of all, for a long while the rebels hid in an underground tomb and the pacing in the story was a bit off for me.

Whenever I read books about rebellions at some point it turns out that the rebels have a secret hideout underground and the characters’ activities stop, they become a bit idle usually; sure, they plan things, but don’t act for a while and I very often get bored when that happens.

The other thing that I find a bit slow in the trilogy is the romance. Aia and Cole are running circles around each other and I expected something to happen between them in the second book, but they were still too shy about their feelings.

Despite these two things that bothered me a bit, I enjoyed the second book very much and I would recommend the series to everyone who likes fantasy. I can’t wait to know what Aia will be up in the next book.

Read my review of From the Ashes here.

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