My Five Word TL:DR Review : No middle book syndrome here!

The Two-Faced Queen is everything that I hope for in a second book and then some.  This is one crazy ride of a story, full of yet more intrigue and deceit involving immortals, serial killers and a continuing fight for the throne.

I’m not going to recap The Kingdom of Liars here (there are plenty of reviews already out there for that purpose but I would just mention that if you haven’t read the first and intend to do so then this review may contain spoilers.

We start off with a very handy synopsis of what took place in book 1 kindly and considerately provided by the author.

As the story sets off Michael Kingman escaped execution by the skin of his teeth after being taken on as apprentice to Dark of Orbis Mercenary Company.  Nobody would willingly risk bringing down the wrath of a mercenary company let alone one that is so well known.  However, this temporary reprieve doesn’t totally eliminate the risk to Michael.  There are no shortage of people who have himl in their sights, the Two Faced Queen being perhaps the most formidable.

Following the death of her father, Princess Serena (aka The Two Faced Queen) is overcome with the desire to punish Michael.  She doesn’t believe that the King took his own life and is hellbent on revenge. Meanwhile, outside the city gates the rebellion continues to brew.  Refugees begin to flood the city and to complicate matters further a serial killer, known previously as the Heartbreaker has returned to the Hollows and to say the plot thickens would be to seriously underplay the issue.

What I loved about The Two Faced Queen.

The writing is excellent and the story is superbly plotted.  There’s so much going on here and I can’t deny that I needed to really stay focused  in order to keep up with all the intrigue and characters.  This is one tricksy number with no shortage of action or twists.  I was absolutely hooked and constantly wanting to read just one more chapter.

The characters are fascinating, flawed and truly compelling.  I can’t deny that there’s a very busy cast that sometimes means keeping everything clear in your mind can be difficult but I genuinely loved so many of these.  Michael has come on leaps and bounds since the first book.  He isn’t in such a dither now but is much more focused.  Dark is truly fascinating as is the Orbis Mercenary Company, who we get to meet more of.  I must say I loved the apprentice trial that Michael was put through and more than that the outcome – what a surprise.  There’s also a great sense of family here with Michael’s mother being recovered and the family returning to the Kingman Keep.  The Royals and the Kingman family share such a complicated past and that is explored much more in this instalment.  It seems that Serena and Michael may have strong feelings for each other.  Naomi and Trey both return and play outstanding roles and seriously, I just can’t help feeling so impressed by the way everything comes together.  That ending.

The Two Faced Queen is a sequel that seriously builds on the foundations of the first book.  The Kingdom of Liars was indeed well named, so many lies, so much deceit and none of it helped when you consider that the nobles and royalty all suffer gaps in their memory as a result of too much magic use. There’s no shortage of history or family backstories and I loved the final resolution which makes me super excited for the next instalment.  Plus, a murder mystery that feeds into the plot so beautifully.

Overall, I have no criticisms, I had an excellent time reading this and was absolutely gripped.  I can’t wait for more.

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

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars