Holy freakin' sh*t! Alright, so I loved The Diabolic. Like, I devoured it and immediately wished for the sequel because I needed more. I was all over how Nemesis was a complete badass female who could easily kill people and thought she was incapable of love, only to find out that maybe she can love, but that that love didn't make her soft. I was down for it and ready to join her squad, so when it came to this one I expected a lot of violence and Nemesis being a badass and stuff.
All that being said, this one kind of didn't meet my expectations, but at the same time I'm not really complaining? Like, Nemesis is still kind of a badass, but at the same time she is definitely more tame in this book, so there was a lot less violence, which made me sad. And Tyrus is...well, I still don't know how to feel about him, though at the end of this one I can tell you my feelings for him are definitely leaning in the direction of stabbing.
It did start off slow, so slow that I ended up putting it down at like 20% and starting (and finishing) another book. This one focuses a lot more on politics and the religion of the people, which made it drag for me, because I get enough politics in reality, I definitely didn't want to read about how it was messing up another galaxy too. I mean, I get how it added to the story and was the main reason for the conflict in the story, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed reading about it.
But I gotta say, this book quickly picked up steam and didn't slow down till the end where instead of stopping it crashed into a brick wall and I didn't survive. Like, once the foundation was laid with all the politics/religion, everything got rolling with the characters and it just took off. Some things I expected, mainly because there was no way everything could be okay when the book isn't even at 50%, but also because I knew something had to be up. Some other things were definitely plot twists or me that caught me completely off guard and had me reeling, because they came out of nowhere and I was just like, "Say what? HOW?! WHY?!"
The betrayals I definitely didn't expect, because how could I? They were the last things I expected to happen, and then they did, and all I could do was stare at my Kindle screen in complete bafflement. The last betrayal I especially didn't expect and it ended up making me ugly cry, because all I could think about was the mistakes made and how everything could have been different and how I know in the next book things are GOING DOWN and because it made my heart hurt.
This is definitely a good sequel that I have been dying to read and it definitely didn't disappoint me, but now I'm dying for the next book because I NEED to know what happens, because my heart is weak and I just don't think I can survive spending a year convincing myself everything will be okay only to have the next book come out and crush me, because after that ending? Yeah, nothing is sacred, the author has no shame in our tears, and nothing is off-limits, which means we will die.

The Empress by S.J. Kincaid is the second book in the young adult science fiction/fantasy series, The Diabolic. The first book in the series introduced readers to Nemesis who is a Diabolic. Diabolics are engineered to be human like but extremely strong and powerful and meant to bond to one person and protect them at all costs. Nemesis had been bonded to a young girl, Sidonia, who had been summoned to appear before the emperor. It was thought that Sidonia might be walking into a trap so Nemesis had taken her place to protect her. During that time Nemesis bonded with Tyrus who was in line to take the throne.

Now Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side but there are many that oppose a Diabolic becoming the next Empress. Tyrus and Nemesis must deal with many who wish to control the young Emperor as he fights to bring technology and knowledge back to the masses. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, however do not wish Tyrus to continue to rule and will do anything to see that his reign is ended to keep their control of the empire.

When picking up The Diabolic, the first book in this series, I was quite under the impression that the book was meant to be a standalone at the time it was published. I think though there were many that asked for the story to continue since it was a really good one that left a lot of room for continuation so now it seems that this is due to become a trilogy and I was quite excited to continue on reading of Nemesis’ world.

The Empress sort of reads as if the middle book of a trilogy in the fact that it spent a lot of time building up conflict and connecting the story which gave it a slower pace. I was beginning to wonder if we were in for the shocks and surprises that the first book held or simply a lot of world building. At the end of this book the intensity really picked up yet again leaving the reader at a huge cliffhanger to lead into the next book. So while this one seemed a slower pace I still ended up really excited to continue on and would definitely recommend checking out this series, it’s definitely one that needs to be enjoyed from the beginning though and not out of order.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book.  I may need a moment - not that it would help.  Deep breath. 

I went through bouts of happiness, rage, frustration, hopelessness, and had to step away from this novel at times, but it is undoubtedly one of my best YA sci-fi reads this year because of the completely shocking, soul-crushing, and infuriating twists the story takes.  

Tyrus may possibly be one of my favorite YA characters - he's intelligent and usually ten steps ahead of everyone else, flawed, idealistic, and has a strong moral compass, but his soul is striated with shades of gray.

Occasionally, second books in a series are filler before the finale, but beware, folks - that isn't the case here.  This is an emotionally gut-wrenching tale that will leave you in agony waiting for the next book.  

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

This pacing of the book was too fast for me to fully grasp or understand what was going on. I didn’t really care for the characters and the interactions between the characters was bland and forced. The writing and narration is dull and unimpressive, I was bored and just didn’t care about the characters. Nemesis, the protagonist, is so utterly boring. Apparently she’s a Diabolic and some awesome assassin, yeah…I did NOT get that from what I read and skimmed the rest. She seems to clingy to Tyrus and I couldn’t care when I read what happened between them. Tyrus was so one-dimensional that I just couldn’t care when I read his part of the story. I couldn’t understand the pacing and it bothered me so much I couldn’t get past the first third of the book.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and volutnary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

The Empress is the highly anticipated sequel to S.J. Kincaid’s The Diabolic and what a whirlwind of read that was! It has the same high stakes and fast paced plot that will leave your head spinning by the end! I was once again a little befuddled with some of the worldviews, the space, the politics, all that new vocabulary. But as I was expecting it this time, it wasn’t as hard to get through.

Nemesis and Tyrus have their work cut out for them. Many of Tyrus’ subjects still oppose to having a Diabolic as an empress. She’s fights off numerous assassination attempts every week. The most pressing problem is their enemies and how relentless they are in their attempts to overthrow Tyrus’ reign. But Pasus has other plans in mind. Political intrigue takes over much of the plot in this one. Backstabbing and plotting are all over the place. Tyrus and Nemesis know they will need more help on their side if they ever hope to be rid of Pasus once and for all. So they leave to go find the Interdict and hope that he may grant Nemesis personhood in hopes of quelling the protests of a Diabolic married to the emperor.

Naturally, things don’t go as planned. There was a lot more going on in this one than we saw in the previous book, at least I thought so. And this one is even shorter than its predecessor! Yet it’s jam packed with so many twists and turns! Seriously, I feel as if I might have reader’s whiplash! But in a weird way, it was kind of thrilling!

True, I suffered from bouts of confusion again. We get deeper into the politics in this one. I have never been a fan of politics in any scope, so you can imagine how trying it was for me to get through some of these moments. Then add in some time-warp traveling or whatnot and you can pretty much color me confused in some parts of this one. Despite all that though, I did still really like this one. Outside of the politics portion, you once again have these amazing characters that you watch grown and change and totally surprise you in so many ways!

This book had its surprises too! Though I won’t get into that! But just know that the last quarter of the book or so was chock full of them! Every time I thought Kincaid had me shock, she would proceed to shock me further! It was unreal!

One thing I did notice that was missing was the romance between Tyrus and Nemesis. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not totally gone. But with all the chaos that surrounds them, finding time for a romantic interlude was a lot harder than you’d think! The stolen moments were sweet though. But I kind of missed “them” overall. It was like they hardly had time to be together together anymore. And yes, I meant the double phrase there! Spell check did not like that either!

I found that The Empress was a very character driven novel as was The Diabolic. While things may get overly complicated plot wise, I find I still love and hate these characters. I won’t get into where they all fall under. But they are still very real, very complicated people.

Reading The Empress totally spun my head all around! I have no idea what to expect next! Just when I thought I had things figured out, Kincaid surprises me once again! If you were a fan at all of The Diabolic, I highly recommend continuing the story! The wait for the next book very well might be disastrous! I’ll just let you think on that.


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars—again with the minor takedown on rating. Still a GOOD read! Slightly better than good even! But all the politics and added time leaps kind of spun my head in the wrong direction. Not the good head spin I’ll tell you. Still it was a most fascinating read and I look forward to the conclusion!


The Empress releases October 31, 2017

Broke my heart- I knew where things were going, and then I was right, but I can't wait to read more.

I loved The Diabolic, so I thought it was a fun surprise to discover that it had been turned into a trilogy. The whole book was one giant emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, which might be too much for some people but I loved it!

The story really opened up in the sequel - people and places that were only hinted at in The Diabolic now have entire backstories that really give the world the author built a more finished feeling. The character development was fascinating, watching Nemesis struggle with her desire to be human and how far that can actually take her, as well as Tyrus waver back and forth between sanity and insanity (...maybe. You can never tell with him).

I'm looking forward to seeing where the third book goes.

This book was such a letdown from The Diabolic that my initial rating was one star. After giving myself 24 hours to reflect, I bumped it up to two stars because it is not bad, just really suffers in comparison. I seldom read sequels and when I do and am disappointed, I wonder if it's because the sequel is actually not as good or it it's because I've seen the author's tricks already. I don't have an answer to that question with this one but here are some of my issues:

Tyrus is described on several occasions as always being ten steps ahead of everyone in his planning and yet he allows Pasus to get the drop on him more than once.
Despite his careful planning (which we are told about but don't always see materialize) he never tells Nemesis what he has in mind but instead asks her to trust him. Then they leave their secret chat room and he turns on her and she's supposed to not act. But when she does act, he later tells her she didn't do what he wanted. Maybe he could give her a clue about what he's going to do so she won't inadvertently mess something up?
I missed the story and character development because the entire book was jumping from one life-threatening situation to another. There's a blazing star that is meant to cook everyone! There are Diabolics that are meant to kill Tyrus! There's a black hole that will suck them in! Here's someone else Nemesis wants to kill to protect Tyrus without his knowledge! Here's a spaceship ripping the roof off their room! The pace and action left no room for much of anything else and made it choppy for me.
Nemesis does grow as the story progresses but a huge part of the book is whether she is human or not and for quite awhile her reactions are complete devoid of empathy. I feel sure that we, as readers, are supposed to believe she is capable of love and emotion but that is not shown in her interactions with others.
Why, why, why do neither Tyrus nor Nemesis kill Pasus in any of the situations where they had that possibility? He is evil and has made it clear he plans to use them for the rest of their lives to his own ends. As I noted above, he manages to back them into corners on several occasions so he's not a dolt who can be easily manipulated like so many others at court. The reason to keep him alive: contrived narrative necessity.
I read a review of the first book months ago that described it as a romance set in a space opera and that seems to be an apt description. That formula really seems to fit here as Nemesis and Tyrus are kept apart by forces but then have moments where they can really express their love but then she doubts whether he actually loves her or not but then he does but then maybe he doesn't.... My husband has a plausible theory about what is happening with Tyrus towards the end of the book which has to be what happens or else any reconciliation that comes about (and it must come about for the romance to be complete) is ridiculous.
There is a great deal of use of drugs throughout the book. I don't mind the references in general because it is clear that drug use is a part of the life for the royalty in the book. Furthermore, Nemesis and Tyrus both seem to disdain their use and only use them as required to be social with Nemesis not feeling any effects from them and Tyrus working to limit their effects on him. But one passage in particular stood out after Nemesis rescues Neveni from death: "I made sure to dispatch a service bot her way with recreational narcotics. Venalox was a dreadful narcotic, but I still had faith in other sorts. Drugs were a most excellent means of coping with grief." Two sentences, so not a big deal overall. But it still stood out as something that concerns me in its message.

A disappointment all around. I should've stuck with my usual never reading sequels policy.

I was disappointed with this. The Diabolic was excellent so I was very excited to be approved to read The Empress. The Diabolic could have easily been a stand alone and I'm not sure if it was intended to be a series. The Empress dragged the story line to a point that was borderline ridiculous, and then ended on a huge cliffhanger. So now it's going to be a trilogy or maybe four books? It's too much. I feel like the publisher or the author is tried to wring every last possible drop of success that The Diabolic rightfully received but they ended up killing it.

This sequel was much less satisfying to me. than to The Diabolic. The power and perspective of Nemesis was lost in the second book;I had difficulty staying with the story line. The plot was jumpy and the characters were cliched. Disappointing.

My God, these books are fantastic. I had to leave for work at 93% complete and it was like tearing myself away from my own limbs. I did NOT want to leave when it was just finishing up. This had the same amazing character development, but with so many more twists and turns and backstabbings and murders than the last book (which was absolutely stellar). Nemesis is a force to be reckoned with and is possibly one of the most badass heroines to grace the page of YA literature. She is formidable, deeply flawed, and absolute perfection (quite literally in the last chapter--her quest for perfection was a shocker!). If the last book isn't called "The Assassin", I will be super disappointed. I love where Nemesis is headed as a character and I an expecting just a river of blood when she's done. The only thing I can say about it for the negative is that I really hoped the Diabolic would be a standalone. I'm happy to read more, but as a librarian, I need more one-stop reads to recommend. Also the cover is ugly.

This book makes you a masochist. There is so much pain in the book but you keep on wanting to read more. There are no nice characters. Everyone has an agenda and will kill or maim to reach it. Even the main characters and their allies are like this. This isn't a bad thing. It's actually a relief since YA has a tendency to shy away from dark characterization. The only problem I had with the book was that I didn't know that this was a part two of a series. So I was expecting there to a be an actual ending instead of to be continued. I'm still going to read the third book but a little warning that there is no light at the end of the tunnel would be nice.

The follow up to S.J. Kincaid's Diabolic follows Nemesis and Tyrus as they try to right the wrongs of centuries of repression, deep in the political viper's nest.

A strong psychological theme of "nature vs. nurture" continues to follow Nemesis as she learns that she is capable of so much more than their world even knows.

Perfect for fans of "The Red Queen" and "Court of Fives," this book showcases another butt-kicking heroine, who is definitely not waiting around for a hero to save her!

While reading through the reviews for The Diabolic, I noticed several readers had mentioned that they were disappointed that this ended up being a book series and they felt like The Diabolic stood well on its own and needed no sequels. I tended to agree with those people, but when The Empress popped up on my NetGalley page, I requested it. I figured, when I started reading it, at least I like the author's style and I sort of know what I'm getting myself into.

Upon finishing the book (in almost one sitting), hoo-boy am I glad I requested this one.

It was... a great read. I have to be honest. This may be one of the second-books-in-a-series that worked for me and didn't seem like a time killer while waiting for the ultimate fight in the last book. And man, is there going to be a fight in the last book. I'mma need some popcorn when that shit rolls around next year.

I think, perhaps, one reason I liked this book so much is it really highlights the importance of choice and respecting someone's choice. Everyone has a choice, but do other people respect that choice? And, should someone disrespect a choice you made, what do you do next? What is the right answer? While the book certainly comes up with its own answer, it definitely made me pause. And, as I'm reading YA lit, it made me very happy to know that teens will be reading this and seeing the results that do occur when you choose something for someone else - when you override their choice with what you want. Sure, maybe you're happy for the time being, but does that happiness last? I also loved reading the consequences that happened to Nemesis because she choose not to honor someone's choice.

I'm so glad to see that seems like the era of love triangles seems to be dying. Nemesis and Tyrus seem to stir up enough trouble on their own without the need of a third party. I do love the relationship between the two - they actually take the time to talk about things and try to resolve their issues. The relationship is built slowly, and as a reader, we get to watch the relationship evolve into something that is very well done and heart-breaking for many different reasons.

I think something else I enjoyed about this books was watching Nemesis grow more human. She started the journey in The Diabolic, but you can really read the changes in this one. Don't get me wrong; she's still a bad ass. But she's a bad ass who has grown into a human.

I just really like Nemesis and Tyrus as characters and a couple. I felt frustration and anger with them over situations that occur in the book. My heart broke with Nemesis's over the ending and the choice she had to make (Oh, that ending. I saw it coming a mile away, but I didn't want it to be true!).

The reason for four stars? After a while, all dystopian novels do start to look/sound a bit the same. A few times/situations in the book made me feel like I was reading The Hunger Games meets The Red Queen in Space!!! (No, I don't know why I need three exclamation points there, but I feel like I do.).

Overall, this is a great second book in the series. If you liked the first one, give this one a try.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for approving me for the ARC copy. I was not asked to give anything other than my opinion free and clear.

Let me begin this review by saying, "Wow"! I am a huge Charlaine Harris and Sarah J. Maas fan, but move over because S. J. Kincaid just moved in. The Diabolic was a great novel and I have recommended it time and time again to my customer's to check out or buy. I have. I must confess that I had just finished reading the Red Queen series right before this ARC. The Empress blows it out of the water. The book picks up right after the The Diabolic ends with Tyrus and Nemesis moving forward with changing the way things are run. Nemesis loves Tyrus and is trying to protect him from danger at all turns, but this novel has so many twists that you will not disappointed. I am not giving away much in this review other than BUY THIS BOOK. S. J. Kincaid has given fans a wonderful second book, this is not a filler book like many other series do. The Empress is without a doubt better than the first. I cannot wait until third book. The Empress is packed full of surprises and twists that you don't see coming. The ending BLEW me away! Thank you S. J. Kincaid for making me love trilogies once again.