Carole's Monday

Author: M.L. Farb
Title: The King's Shadow
(The King Trials #2)
Genre: Fantasy
Format: ebook
Pages: 410
Published:  December 21st 2019
Where I Got It: My shelf (Given to me by the author/published) 

Summary:
Two princes lead a war-broken people. One rules while the other serves in the shadows, haunted by encroaching death.

Halavant overthrew his queen mother to save his people from slavery, and now she seeks his life. Yosyph acts as the new king's eyes and ears, but being invisible comes at great cost and his life is slipping away.

To save his closest friend, Halavant travels to the land of the skin-carving Carani, leaving Yosyph to rule a troubled people despite his ill health and the nobles on the verge of rebellion.

Unless Halavant can survive in the land of his enemies to find a cure and Yosyph can unite the frightened and starving people against a second war, both will die and their budding democracy will crumble under a new tyrant.



Review:

I was excited to get my hands on this since I really enjoyed book 1. 

We continue on the journey of Halavant and Yosyph. The queen mother is overthrown and the people are saved from slavery. However, the battle is not over. Yosyph is the new King's eyes and ears, but being invisible is putting his life at risk and he is wasting away. To save him, Halavant has to travel to the land of the skin-carving Carani and find a cure. While he's gone Yosyph has to try and rule the troubled people who are the verge of rebellion. 

They cannot have a moment of relaxation and peace! I feel for them for sure, but I figured it wasn't going to be easy taking over these people and bringing peace. They were under the queen's thumb for so long. Poor people. 

I do like how you can read this as a standalone okay, but I do highly encourage reading book 1 to fully see everything and watch our characters grow. Totally worth it. 

There was a romance mixed in, but it didn't take over the story which made me happy. They have enough on their plates! But yes - we do get to see some resolution and love that I've been rooting for since book 1. NO spoilers at all. SOOO I will stop there ;)

I will also applaud the author for not letting Katrin and Elise fall in the background and be damsels. They had a huge part in the story too. I like both of them a lot too and I was worried that now that were going to be left behind and not included since the boys have their power. Yayy. 

This was a quick read. I got this done in 3 sittings. I really couldn't put it down. I was sooooo worried about Yosyph (who is my absolutely my favorite). Eeee! SAVE HIM DON'T LET HIM WASTE AWAY! WAAH! 

The ending was good. It made me cheer!

Overall, I really liked this as much as book 1. The characters have really continued to grow and the adventure is not over for our team. I couldn't put this down. I highly recommend this series if you are looking for a good fantasy. Maybe there will be a book 3 ;). I'm going to stamp this with 4 stars.