(Spoilers for the first book, and some minor spoilers for this book...

I have never been more dissapointed about a sequel.

First, i will go over the physical book itself and how its written, then i will go in to my review of the story itself.
[BOOK BUILD QUALITY] - It was, to be honest, rather expensive. at £15 for a damn PAPERBACK, it was very expensive. Almost 50% more expensive than most paperbacks and this was not even slightly justified once, half way through reading it, one of the pages FELL OUT. Absoultely horrible.

[NO EDITOR?] - Several times during the book there are many errors that made me seriously doubt if the author hired an editor or not.
At one point, a character throws a dagger in to a nameless grunt, saying "I threw it at *her*" but then only one paragraph later it was described as "my knife was lost somewhere in *him*"
Seriously? Its literally on the same page.
There are also various and frequent examples of the author being tone deaf. For instance, at one point a character returns from something that almost kills them, and that characters romantic partner basically just shrugs and goes to talk to someone else, but i will talk about this more in the story section.
The book starts from the perspective of Ruff, Kae's first mate aboard her ship. Annoyingly, stupidly, the books last chapter is ALSO from his perspective. I'm pretty sure any editor worth their salt would have told the author that this was a bad idea - Ruff was a side character in the first book, and through this book his role barely expands beyond that. Simply put, his character is dull and unimportant and almost everything in his chapters from his persective would have been better served being from the perspective of the actual protagonists of the book, as a lot of it is literally just conversations between the two protagonists, just from the perspective of Ruff.
If this book had an editor, i would have been certain they would have suggested those chapters be re-written from Kae or Aqueras perspectives, because im pretty sure i'm in the majority here by saying that Ruff is not interesting enough for him to get his own chapters, especially when they add so little. But again i will go in to this in the story section.

[THE STORY] - When i realised that the first book, that i enjoyed, had a sequel i jumped on the chance to read it. My mind raced at the possibilities for a plot for the second book - Maybe Kae would be turned in to a Siren, if only temporarily, and visit the Siren kingdom? It would only make sense after all, the first book was all about Aquera, a siren, discovering the human world. Would the main plot be about the sirens accepting Kae, as a former siren hunter? Would Aqueras sisters acccept her? Maybe they might even make an attempt on her life! It would also be a reconciliation of sorts between Kae and her feeling for sirens having killed her brother! After all, she may have fallen in love with a siren but that doesn't mean she's forgiven them as a race, surely?
Maybe it could instead be about humans coming to accept a Siren as their Queens lover? After all, Sirens have been killing Humans for centuries. This could have been an interesting idea!

Behold my dissapointment when the book takes quite possibly the most boring route possible.
It starts off with Kae and Aquera getting ready to get married but is stopped, and before we know it they're on the waves again after....Wait seriously? They're out to kill the sea witch that died in the first book? How did this get past storyboarding?
The sea witch from the first book served a narrative purpose as ultimately revealing Aquera to Kae as a siren, and after that is done her importance is so low that she literally dies one page later. Boom, done, her character has served her purpose for the story
But now...She's the main anatagonist? Seriously? What was the author thinking?

As mentioned earlier, there are chapters from the perspective of Ruff and i have to say, i almost wanted to skip these chapters half the time.
His chapters fell in to two catagories
Chapters where he is having an internal monologue about how he can ignore his pain and continue his duty, meanwhile he spends the entire time being sad and complaining about Dalton being missing, and that's literally his whole character
And
Chapters where he stands around not contributing anything while looking at a conversation between Kae and another character, or Aquera and another character...Which are instances that would have been better served to be from the perspective of either one of them, but not Ruff.
He should not have had his own chapters, nevermind just as many as the other two characters.

By the time you're halfway through the book, there are literally 7 gay couples on the ship. Literally everyone is gay. Why? Whhhhy? Having that many gay couples kinda detracts from how special it was that kae and Aquera got together in the first place, overcoming tradition in favour of love.
And honestly...its mostly the number of couples. Imagine reading a romance novel and by the end there are literally 7 couples. That's just too many. It's too busy.
Why was Kae and Aquera not the focus? Why did the author feel they had to push an agenda here by quite literally over-crowding the ship in couples? Did she want the book to be about a ship of gay people rather than a ship of pirates? Certainly seems it, as they barely do any real pirating all book.

(MODERATE SPOILERS FROM HERE)

At one point in the book, Kae and Aquera have a fight about something. In the next chapter, Aquera almost dies....and Kae just shrugs and goes to talk to someone else, before a whole chapter is dedicated to looting an abandoned ship that never gets explained.
....WHHHHHY!?!??!
They were just fighting! Kae should have gathered Aquera in to her arms and shouted at how stupid she was to be mad at her, because she almost lost her!
It would have been a revelation for the characters that they can't take each other for granted!
Instead, she damn well goes and has a chat with a side character that contributes nothing!
WHY!?!?!?
This is an example of the author, as mentioned above in an earlier section, being tone deaf.

[**THE ENDING** (MAJOR SPOILERS)]
Pretty much one of the worst endings of a book i've ever read.

Near the end, one of Aqueras siren sisters jumps infront of a blow that would have killed Kae. Why? Damn if i know. It was explained that she hated Kae, and did not approve of Aquera being in love with her. She hated humans.
This is literally never explained.


At the end of the book, Aquera defeats the big baddie sea witch but in the process her uses too much magic and must make a choice, return to the siren kingdom but never set foot on land again, or remain human and never be a siren again.
Obviously she choses to remain human.... *AND THEN HER WEDDING WITH KAE IS TOLD FROM DAMN RUFFS PERSPECTIVE!!?!?!?! WHY RUFFS PERSPECTIVE!??!?! WHAT MORE CAN HE TAKE AWAY FROM THIS TRAINWRECK OF A BOOK!?!?! It's Kae and Aqueras wedding! Not his! Horrible, horrible decision!
Not to mention, Aquera becoming human at the end of the book, kinda defeats the whole purpose of both books. There is no longer any kind of conflict, no longer any kind of dichotomy. She's no longer a queen. There is now no way to continue the story any further. The author has written herself, and her world and characters, in to a corner. owned3 s Grace694 7 Shelved as 'dnf'

DNF @ 40%

i do not think the first book needed a sequel at all i think it would’ve been better as a standalone 2 s Jennys_library317 10

A Chorus of Ashes and Shadows by Melissa Karibian is a fantasy and book 2 of the series. This story starts off about 6 months after book 1. That's a whole 6 months of repairing and healing. Things are starting to look up in the Kingdom of Avalon until they are attacked along with several other kingdoms. Now, instead of wedding bells, a group of pirates will come together again to embark on an adventure!

I absolutely loved this story. Book 1 was amazing, and this one was even better. You get a high stakes quest, world building,  action, and a beautiful love story or two! The characters were great! You get pirates, sirens, and magic. The lgbtq+ representation was wonderful. I enjoyed this story from beginning to end!1 Hanbbooks178 5

Wow what an ending of this duology. I didn't know before this book how much I have missed these characters. They are one truly family.

This book made my heart ache, it left me wanting to read more. This is the perfect sequel and ending of this amazing duology. I wish it was even longer. I will miss these amazing characters.

Now onto the story, it was original, scary and full of action and emotions. I had some problems with putting the book down
Autor del comentario:
=================================