Amazing follow up to one of my favorite books of 2019! Bravo, Kelly Coon! This is a fierce story filled with a lush setting and deep characters! I will read anything by this author!

Warmaidens is the action-packed conclusion to the heart wrenching Gravemaidens fantasy duology. Just a few moons after Kammani, her sister Nanaea, Simti, Arwia, the displaced Queen of Alu, Nasu, and brother Kasha escaped the tomb in Alu, they have found refuge in the city-state of Manzazu. Kammani has become a respected healer, especially among the warriors she’s brought back from the brink of death. But, while Simti is preparing to be married, she’s having second thoughts about accepting that one day Dagan may be her husband, and as such, would be her legal guardian. Any hope she may have of becoming a full-time healer, would quickly come to an ending.

Just after a ceremony where Manzazu Sarratum Tabni gifts Kammani with the symbol of Linaza, Goddess of War and Love, to be used whenever she needs help, and Simit’s wedding, an assassin murders a healer, Arwia, who was training Kammani to be an even better healer and attempts to kill Nanaea who is supposed to be dead. Kammani and the maidens realize they’ve been found by the usurper King, Uruke. Hungry for revenge, Nanaea wants to strike back at Uruke with her fiercest weapons—her scorpion warrior maidens—but Kammani knows that war harms more than it heals, especially the poor. To save the innocents and any chance of a future with Dagan, Kammani mst be the one take down Alu’s ruler before their lives burn up in the flames of war.

As Kammani, Dagan, Nanaea, Iltani, Nasu, and Kasha are heading towards Alu, rumors spread that Uruke is killing anyone who opposes his rule. Uruke has commandeered most of the fields and forced Dagan’s brothers to slave away in the field while their mother is being kept captive because Dagan found a way to escape with Kammani and the others. To make matters even more stressful Iltani is caught and ends up being party of a bridal gifting to anyone who has the money to pay for a wife. Oh, we are just getting started! Plans unravel quickly when an ally decides that she wants revenge for the murder of her own son, and Uruke someone manages to survive being poisoned.

I loved how Kammani and her sister bonded over a harsh environment which could end up with both of them dead. Unlike the first book when she was all excited to be a bride to the deceased King, this time she’s actively involved in helping Kammani with costumes they need to pass in order to assassinate Uruke and put Arwia on the throne where she belongs. Kammani is a fascinating character in that she has honest regrets about killing someone since she’s made a vow to do no harm. Even during battle, she finds ways of offering comfort to both allies and enemies alike, as well as others who are caught in the crossfire. The story is more action packed then the first book and a bit chaotic at times which worked well to illustrate the difficulties Kammani and her crew are up against. I am not angry with the ending. Kammani made a choice and stuck with it from the beginning to the end when it came to marrying Dagan and remaining a healer. Why give up something you love when you can have both?

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was as well written as the first book but I liked the first book better. In the first one Kammani is trying to keep her sister Nanaea from being a sacred maiden and going to her death when Lugal Marcus dies. In that one, she uses her healing expertise to try and keep Marcus alive. That just was a better message than this one. Although she is trying to protect her family and friends again, she is using her healing knowledge to poison the current Lugal, the awful Uruku so that Arwia can take her rightful place as ruler.

Kammani's plans though are not well though out and it was frustrating to always see them fail. Her and Dagan were such a sweet couple though. I preferred Dagan to Kammani in this book. It was a fairly good duology though. And the covers of these books are gorgeous!

One of my favorite elements of Warmaidens was the way Coon discusses the tradition of marriage, and specifically how the system disadvantages women. Without rights or, in some cases, choice, Kammani frequently discusses the ways marriage, even with love, can be restricting. While the world is on the brink of war, and her loved ones are in constant peril, Kammani still turns over her own feelings towards Dagan, and the concept of marriage.

It's a theme that is reflected in a variety of characters about to be given away, without their consent, or trapped in marriages. Another theme that Warmaidens explores is the idea of the greater good. When costs and lives are discussed in abstract terms, we can lose track of what it means. Whose father and mother are the ones who will pay the price. Kammani and Arwia are committed to trying to minimize the lives lost, especially those of the innocent.

In Warmaidens, we pick up a couple months after Gravemaidens. When we last left them, our band of essential outcasts had escaped the tomb where they were all left to die and are on their way to a new place hoping to find help in restoring the rightful ruler to the throne.


In Warmaidens we begin with this new ruler (Sarratum Tabni) honoring Kammani with an amulet from their goddess meant to show that this Sarratum is in debt to Kammani for healing them and she’d be able to call on her troops (who are all women btw, so amazing!) if she ever needed help. But when our band of outcasts realize that the Sarratum aims to use war to oust the horrid Uruku from his stolen throne they all rush back to the place they fled. As a team they aim to quietly oust Uruku all the while causing the least amount of blood shed but.. when they return to their homeland they find it completely different to when they last were there. The Uruku has gone mad with power, killing off whoever displeased him and leaving the entirety of the poor population starving.

As one and with the help of Sarratum Tabni’s troops, Kammani and her friends need to place the rightful ruler back on her throne or risk one or more of them dying.

Warmaidens is one shock after another and I definitely enjoyed seeing the character growth of our main character and seeing all the hard work that she and her friends go through in order to take a dictator out a throne that didn’t belong to him.

**Review will posted on my blog on 11/16/20**

Thank you to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

My Attention: read in five days

World Building: scenery is written wonderfully as in Gravemaidens

Writing Style: easy to read

Crazy in Love: Kammani and Dagan are already in love, Kammani just doesn’t want to be a “wife”

Creativity: Kammani’s life is in danger and they have to get Uruku off the throne

Triggers: violence, grief, misogyny

My Takeaway: You don’t have to give up your dreams when you fall in love with someone.

I Liked:
*Iltani was my favorite in the first book, Gravemaidens and she comes back again with her sassy, wild self. She has the most personality out of all the characters. The women power vibes of Kammani and her crew were present in this book which is great.

*Dagan is still trying to get Kammani to marry him but she’s worried about balancing her dreams, life and love. What if she doesn’t want children? What if she doesn’t want marriage? I like that the author let Kammani be happy without these things. The message I got was that it was okay to be independent and in love too.

*A lot of things go wrong in this book, but I like that no matter what, the friends/families work together to achieve their goal.

Random Notes:
*I liked Gravemaidens more than this one because it was darker and more mysterious than Warmaidens. This is described as a dark story, but it didn’t feel that way at all.

*Other than Iltani, I felt no connection to anyone else.

*The way the characters planned out how to take down Uruku felt naive or amateurish, and it was – considering none of them were cold blooded killers, but I lost interest many times when it felt like their plans didn’t feel well thought out.

Final Thoughts:
Though it’s not my favorite book in the duology, I think Warmaidens is a solid conclusion to this series. My favorite character Iltani really came through in personality, and she made the book fun to read. Kammani’s internal questions about how to be in love and not lose her independence really resonated with me and I’m glad to see her make her own choices. If you like stories about family, sisterhood, women power and romance, then you would enjoy this series.

Warmaidens by Kelly Coon does not have the same feel as its predecessor, Gravemaidens, while at the same time it has basically the same premise – to get an evil ruler off the throne of Alu. This story is very repetitive, lacks communication between the characters, and there’s little to no character growth.

Throughout the story Kammani and her friends are trying to get the ruler of Alu off the throne before Manzazu’s queen can start a war, but every plan they make has such a lack of communication that they fail over and over again, and instead of learning from their mistakes and trying to work together they continually end up hurting each other and their cause.

Again with the of the lack of communication, no character growth, and repetitiveness is Kammani and Dagan’s relationship. I get that the author is trying to show Kammani standing up for women’s rights, but I can’t help but feel for Dagan. This man has never forced Kammani to do anything and yet she is so scared to trust him in marriage. Kammani’s (and also Iltani’s but that’s another story for another day) behavior in my opinion does more harm than good for feminism. At times I was so disgusted with how they treated the men in this story. As much as I loved Dagan for being the loyal man that he is, I also wished he would stand up for himself and realize that he deserved better. Love is great and all, but if your relationship lacks communication and trust it won’t be a happy one or last very long.

Let me finish off by saying that I really enjoyed the first book in this duology, Gravemaidens. I even said in my review of that book that it almost had a happy ending and could probably be read just as a standalone. I should have left well enough alone and skipped Warmaidens, but I’m a curious person and wanted to make sure that statement would hold up. In my opinion it absolutely does. So, even though this installment wasn’t my favorite I will still recommend that y’all read Gravemaidens because it really is a fantastic book, and you can just wrap up the loose ends on your own.

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Gravemaidens duology. I got an eGalley of this book from NetGalley to review.

Story (3/5): This was a well done conclusion to this duology. This was decently written and kept me reading. I did feel like there wasn't anything special in here though, events just kind of played out as expected. There were also a lot of repetitive plot devices...make a plan to kill the king, oh it doesn't work and people die, make another plan to kill the king, oh...that didn't work either and people died...repeat over and over. This book does resolve everything nicely but the ending was just eh...

Characters (3/5): I never found the story or characters to be all that compelling. They just didn’t inspire or really engage me. I feel like Kammani made a lot of the same mistakes over and over and didn’t grow much as a character. I feel like Dagan was very supportive but was disappointed that he just sat back and watched Kammani make the same mistakes over and over again.

Setting (3/5): The setting was a pretty basic middle eastern based fantasy setting. We do venture outside of the kingdom of Alu briefly but it didn’t really give me a good feel for the world outside of Alu. The world-building could have been a lot better.

Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): This was technically written fine. It kept me interested and I wanted to know what happened in the end. However, I just didn’t find myself intrigued by the world or really rooting for the characters….it just didn’t suck me in. It was perfectly fine….everything was just...fine. I was disappointed that the theme of the Boatman wasn’t carried through the story a bit more consistently. He was in the story here and there and played a bit role at the end but wasn’t woven into the story that well...he was almost more of an afterthought.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a bit disappointing for me, it kept me reading but I never really felt engrossed in the story. It did a good job of wrapping up the story and tying up loose ends but didn’t really blow me away with it’s creativity. It ended up being a nice basic fantasy story about overthrowing a tyrant that had a middle eastern flare to it.

Let me start this off by saying that this book was significantly better than the first one, Gravemaidens. But, there were a few things that held it back.

The writing and scenery were both beautiful, it's clear that the author wanted to develop the lively new culture that we see in the kingdom at the start of this book. The words flowed so nicely in descriptions, which I really don't remember being this pretty in book one. The author has definitely honed her craft.

The things that really held this book back for me were the lack of character development and the same conflicts brought up over and over again. Once again, Kammani is at war with herself, and once again she takes advantage of Dagan's niceness and patience and leaves him hanging onto nothing for most of this book. I get that she's uncertain, but she knows he's a great person, and she loves him. Yet, she refuses to commit. It was really frustrating to read about.

Also unfortunately carrying over from book one, Nanea is still a vapid stupid child who happens to be curvy and gorgeous. She never learns to think. Every time Kammani describes her sister, she seems obsessed with how pretty she is. It's weirdly unsettling to read about, and it's definitely nothing like how siblings look at each other.

The feminist themes fell flat once again. They lacked subtlety, and were incredibly in your face. "These people hate women! They're oppressing women!" Yes, I know. That's been a consistent theme here. That rehashing of the same struggle made up a huge portion of the worldbuilding, despite the introduction of a new setting in this book. I wish we'd stayed there the entire time.

So, this book was definitely far better than the first one. However, it still fell short of what it could've been.

I actually enjoyed the first book more than this conclusion. And I have to point out the covers of these books are beautiful!

Dagan is my favorite character, he’s just a sugar plum! I got mad sometimes at how Kammani treated him. I still enjoyed Kammani, but she seemed a bit different.

There is still some blood and gore, nothing major in my opinion as I read some Grimdark, but it’s there. Naturally, some people die as well.

I was happy with the ending and I loved the story of the boatman, that brought a little tear to my eye.

At any rate, I still enjoyed the book.

Happy Reading!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

*Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for a digital copy of this book.

Thank you so much sending this to me for review. This is no way influences my thoughts or feelings about the book.

4/5 Stars

I love series and I appreciate the ones that are able to carry on for ages without getting repetitive or mundane. However, I have an immense appreciation for books that can wrap up a huge plotline with twists and turns within one to three novels. I absolutely loved this ending and I couldn't have asked for a better conclusion.

It is very violent. There is slight animal abuse but it's mostly blood and gore and graphic war scenes. But that is one thing this book does very well. It touches on the realities of violence and fighting that are universal to anyone exposed to these situations.

The characters have some great development and though we only get one perspective we are able to see the progression of mentalities and also the trauma that one is left to deal with after something as violent as war.

It did feel somewhat repetitive with the choices made by the characters and the actions they took to accomplish their goal. Other than that I had such a fun time reading in this world again. I am a little sad that we're all wrapped up and I don't get to experience some of the people anymore but, as I said, I absolutely loved the ending.

This book was just about the same as it’s prequel. Sad to say I didn’t love it like I wanted to. But the ending was fair. It was nothing exciting, however.

Warmaidens is the final book in the Gravemaidens duology. It picks up right from the end of the first book, Gravemaidens. When I finished Gravemaidens, I felt that the story was complete and that it was unnecessary to have another book. After reading Warmaidens, I still pretty much feel the same way.

The story felt super predictable to me and felt forced. There were a lot of lulls, and for some reason this book felt like mostly filler up until the very end when all the actiony-plot things happened.

Love love loved this book! The relationship between the maidens is awesome. There is action, adventure, intrigue! You don’t always get the book you want with a follow up, but this one definitely meets all expectations!

Warmaidens is the conclusion to the Gravemaidens duology and was just as enjoyable as the first installment. It picks up with Kammani and the grave maidens after they fled their city along with the displaced princess Arwia, where they start planning how to reclaim Arwia's throne. It's full of action and danger, female friendships and a bit of romance. If you enjoyed Gravemaidens you'll find Warmaidens a fun and action packed end to the series.

If I'm being honest with myself this one didn't live up to near the hype that Gravemaidens did for me. I loved Warmaidens regardless but I felt like a lot of the story was forced for me and I didn't really feel anything towards the book until I was almost three quarters of the wait through. I loved that Kammanni and Dagan got their happy ending in the end and I will definitely want to get my hands on the next one just to know what happens next but this one just kind of fell flat for me. The story line dragged and though there were things that were necessary to the progression of the plot it just felt blah. It felt like this book was just all filler until the very end when things started to get moving and I was upset with the progress because there could have been so much more to it than what we go.

Like I said I loved Gravemaidens that's one of those that I would probably re-read if given the opportunity but Warmaidens wasn't at all what I was expecting especially after the first book.

I gave Gravemaidens five stars. It was a spectacular book. It had lots of good moments throughout, so when I requested an e-arc of the sequel I was giddy with excitement when I was approved. I kept putting off reading it because I wanted to savor it. Thus, it breaks my heart to write this review. Going into this I was hoping it was going to be as good as the first, but somehow…I just felt like it teetered a bit. Suffice to say, while this was not a five star book it was still a good book. It was probably a 3-3.5 star rating book. I enjoyed it, but for me, there were a lot of things I struggled with overall. In fact, I almost felt that Gravemaidens would have been an excellent standalone provided there was more of a conclusion to it.
Why?
Because I felt that this book was more of the same from the last book. The plot included and I just…I didn’t love it. I felt there could have been so much done with it, and instead it just felt like we got a rehash of everything we’d already done. Which granted, it was changed some. But not enough for me to believe that this needed a book of its own.
One thing I did love was the beginning of the book. I loved seeing what they had been doing between the first book and this one. It was also great to see old favorites again. My only comment is, maybe reread the first book before starting this one. I remember being a little fuzzy on some of the details, and not all of them came back to me.
One of the aggravating parts of this book was our heroine, Kammani. She kept making choices that made no sense (to me, personally) and then bad things would happen. It just…I felt between the last book and this one she should have grown more. Instead it feels like she ended up a static character that had nowhere to go.
The same goes for the other characters, compared to the last book they felt a little flat to me. I don’t know, I just wasn’t loving the characters as much in this one. I did still love the complicated relationships the characters had with each other. It was something I enjoyed in the first book and continued to enjoy in this one.
A big difference is the romance takes a main focus in this book, and Dagan and Kammani’s relationship as it changes. I loved the sister’s relationship in the first, but that felt like it took a backseat to the romance in this book.
Coon is also a fabulous writer. I enjoy her writing and think there is so much talent to be applauded.
But overall I struggled with this book despite my best intentions. I struggled to stay focused on it. There was nothing majorly wrong about this book, but it just wasn’t hitting the right notes for me.

I did, however, find it a satisfying conclusion.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Kelly Coon follows up Gravemaidens with its sequel Warmaidens, concluding the duology. Kammani continues with her efforts as a healer, and must learn how to balance her love for her work, her love for Dagan, and her love for her home.

As it is a sequel, even an overview of the plot of Warmaidens would give away much of Gravemaidens. There is a bit more of a fantastical element to this story, as the gods interfere directly in Kammani's experience.

Both Gravemaidens and Warmaidens are filled with powerful, flawed women. Kelly Coon manages to avoid the "strong, independent woman" and the "warrior maiden" trope by fleshing out even the side characters so that they are multi-faceted and have dimensions to their personalities. While various women do fulfill particular roles (the ruler, the healer, the flirt, the warrior, etc), every single female character is more than solely her role. I cannot think of many YA fantasy duologies that I can say that about, so I applaud the author for that.

While all of the characters were developed, this was definitely a plot driven story. The pace was fast, everything was high stakes, and nothing came easy for Kammani and crew. Kammani had to plan, re-plan, and plan again before finding her way around an obstacle, which I appreciate.

I do find that, while the characters were all solid, I never really found a favorite, which is odd for me and also impacts my ability to give a higher star rating.

I absolutely enjoyed reading Warmaidens, and look forward to future works from this author.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you, Random House Children's and Delacorte press for the chance to read this book.

Few moons passed after Kammani and the other runaway maidens escaped their entombment in Alu, seeking and finding refuge in Manzazu. There Simti found her love, Iltani, Kasha, Dagan, Kammani created a new and peaceful life. Kammani became a respected healer, above all among the elite group of warriors who protected the queen, the Koru, after she brought them back from the brink of death. Now she only has to decide if marry Dagan or not, living her life peacefully with her friends and sister and brother.
But when an assassin murders a healer, mistaking her for Kammani, she realizes they are still not safe and they won't be until the tyrant Uruku is on the throne. The Manzazu's queen is ready to get her revenge with her army, but Kammani decides to try everything in order to save the innocents and prevent the bloodshed in her city and a war.

Warmaidens is the thrilling conclusion of Gravemaidens duology, told by a strong and stubborn female lead, supported by her sister Nanea, her partner Dagan and her impulsive friend Iltani. Kammani is coming back in their city, wrecked by a tyrant and trying to save it, while battling with her heart, fears, desires and visions.
The reality of what means for a woman to be married, in a world where husbands had power over them, prevents her to accept right away Dagan's proposal, wanting her freedom, wanting to be a healer with her own healing pratice.
Trying to save her city and the innocents in it, Kammami is torn between her beliefs "Do no harm" and the cruel reality of the war. Her stubborness and beliefs are admirable, but sometimes she's forced to do difficult choices during the whole book.
And, after leaving Alu, she keeps seeing and dreaming the Boatman and she's scared of what he may represent for her anbvd her family. In this complex situation.
Kammani is helped by her supportive and loving sister, who is grown a lot, becoming more mature and responsible, by her love for Dagan, who is an amazing and wonderful character and by the light and laughter of Iltani, even though she's tormented, too, by a drinking problem.
Her desire to be safe in Manzuzu is shattered by the attempted assassination that pushed her to fight against and with her beliefs by preventing a war and supporting Arwia, who is, too, fighting to accept her role and the necessity to be on the throne she abandoned.

I really liked reading this book, even though, sometimes it felt a bit slow and dragged on and I couldn't enjoy Kammani as I did in the first book, because her internal battle with and against her beliefs was, sometimes, a bit repetitive. But she's an amazing and fierce character, always trying to do the right thing, to protect her family and frienfs, to be free and safe.

Warmaiden is full of plans, plotting, mistakes, fighting, deaths, torture, poisons, visions and it's an intense and captivating conclusion, with complex and stubborn characters. I loved reading Kammani relationship with Dagan, so pure, so full of understanding, love and support, with Nanea, who became a wonderful ally, full of resourcefulness and Iltani, who was infuriating, loving and amazing. I liked the interactions with Dagan's brothers and mother, with Assata's fieceness and pains, meeting the formidable warrior Koru and supporting Arwia against a cruel tyrant.

I really liked reading how Kammani advocates and fights for women's right, above all in the marriage institution in her country, refusing to give up her freedom and her pratice, even though she loves and is loved by Dagan. The bridal gifting was awful and bitter to read and I loved how Iltani fought for her freedom with her friends.

Wonderful conclusion, amazing characters, captivating plot.

Thank you so much! I really like Kelly Coon's writing and world building, however it wasn't as great as I was hoping. I think it's just me, but it felt like every other fantasy novel coming out lately. It was a great conclusion to this duology though!