My Five Word TL:DR Review: The first Was Slightly Better

I enjoyed All Hail Chaos although not quite as much as Long Live Evil. The second book in the Time of Iron series picks up immediately from the cliffhanger of the first and I really enjoyed going back to the world and the characters that I already know and enjoy – however, Key, a character that I very much liked from Long Live Evil is irrevocably changed by Rae’s actions in number one- he has become a monster that everyone, with justification, fears.

So, of course, we pick up very quickly from the ending of book No.1, and I will say that this isn’t a second book in series that you can simply crash into, you really do need to read Long Live Evil (in my opinion). Rae fairly quickly establishes that Key is no longer himself (and lets just be honest – he was a bit of a murdering so and so even before the change but not quite in this league). He is a monster, powerful, ruthless and always watching. He is going to marry Rae – possibly so that he can have the pleasure of killing his bride on the night of their wedding- who knows. Rae is desperate to set the plot back onto its true course but her attempts usually make little difference and she soon succumbs to making deals.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about the plot. Rae is desperate to get things back on track. She still holds a glimmer of hope of returning to her own world and giving Key a chance at his own happily ever after. The other characters from book 1 have dispersed. The Cobra and Marius are travelling back to Marius’s childhood home, the Valerius Mansion – a prospect that Marius is not overly enthusiastic about. And, Emer and Lia are in hiding in the Cauldron, finding things out about themselves and each other.

What I really liked about this. Well, I do like these characters. I really like the concept and I think the writing and dialogue is good and easy to engage with.

However, I do feel that this book suffers from middle book syndrome. That being said I would still rate this a 4 star read as I did enjoy it. But, I think that the main characters all going off on separate journey’s felt very forced and I didn’t enjoy the individual story threads quite as much as I did when they were all together. And, when I say ‘forced’ what I really mean is ‘pointless’ – they’re all going off in different directions but ultimately they’re going to come back together and for the most part it will all have felt a little like wasted time.

Slight criticisms aside I do find myself really enjoying this series. I do like the characters. I feel like shaking Rae because she seems to stumble from one disaster to the next barely managing to stay alive – but I guess this is why she’s enjoyable to read. She’s chaotic, stumbling in the dark a little and just desperate enough to fall into the ‘same old’ traps.

In conclusion, although I don’t think this was quite as good as Long Live Evil I do remain hooked to this series and desperate to read the outcome.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars