While the first book felt a bit rushed and the characters lacked development, this one is much better when it comes to that and we fibally get more world building which I would've appreciated in book 1 to really enjoy the story to the fullest. The characters have their arc, we follow them, they're interesting and the story is no confusing to follow. An improvement that can only get better if a third book ever gets written.

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

Nice sequel. It had a lot going on that was sometimes hard to follow but huzzah for magic and love saving the day!

Meh, I didn't like it. I tried to read it many times but I cannot continue to try for another year. The Idea was really good but I didn't like it.

okay here's the thing, i enjoyed book 1. i thought it was a cute book and overall kind of fun. but, my biggest issue with this series is that it just feels different from book 1. like, i feel like the writing was just way different, which was pretty annoying. and the pacing was just way different. which, also was pretty annoying. but, this book by any means isn't something i'd consider bad. and honestly it might just totally me, but i feel like it was pretty different and it got to be kind of a pain.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting take on the standard fantasy with more inclusion. I liked the characters who were engaging and relatable.
I hadn't read the previous book but I was still able to follow most of the story.
A good read.

I have to say first off that I loved the first book. I felt it super unique, fun, and the relationships were just adorable. This book felt super different to me.

I felt like it didn’t seem like the same series as the first book. The writing style felt different. The pacing was different. Even the characters seemed different. There were trials and things they had to overcome but they just felt one dimensional in this book compared to the first one.

I swear there were even inconsistencies from the first to second book with how the world seemed to work. I also found it confusing because two of the main terms from the first book had new terms and I wasn’t able to remember which was what.

Such an interesting read. Although I missed the first book, the sequal still made sense and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the queer representation, which felt realistic and not overdramatized. The characters had personalities that was more than just their sexual orientation. I enjoyed the way the characters responded to the circumstances and they're witty personalities.
The story was something I haven't experienced in a long time and had me laughing in more than a few places. The dialogue was fun and flowed naturally. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I could not put it down.
Thus I can just say I really enjoyed reading the book, getting to know the characters and the different settings.
The writing read easily which made for a fast and easy read.
Fantasy as not really being a place that has explored social representation, is slowly being addressed and for that I applaud this book.

I love these characters so much. I’m happy to be fighting danger with them again. This takes all of those juicy pieces from book 1 and squeezes every interest bit out. The dreamworld becomes way more prominent in this book in a very interesting way.

I don’t want to dive into actual details because it will instantly give away book 1 plot but I will say:

Magic

High school setting

LGBTQ+

Romance

Twisted reality

Now go read!

I received a complimentary eARC of this title through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to V. S. Santoni and the Wattpad Books team for granting me access to this book!

Where to begin... its an amazing feeling to be able to join Johnny and the gang back on a new adventure. After everything that they went through in the first book they still had much to come.

They've woken up in what looks like a perfectly ordinary US town called Misthaven, reunited with family and expected to go back to regular public school. Too bad it's all fake. The Institute placed in a high-security prison with a whole bunch of "copies" of people they used to know, expected to just happily live fake lives.

There friendships and loyalties will be tested in the book as they have to throw themselves into the night city to help save hunter who has fallen ill from a magical illness. Will Johnny's love for Hunter be Enough well have to wait and see......

The world building in this book or should I say series is is done well. I enjoyed learning more about the night city and creatures to come. Character growth is definitely there not as much as the first book which i would expect since all the characters had gone through their own individual transformation around accepting their new life in the 1st book.

I received a complimentary eARC of this title through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to V. S. Santoni and the Wattpad Books team for granting me access to this book!

I can't remember now if the description on the NetGalley listing had the bold line about this being a sequel when I requested it or not, I may have felt up to the task of diving in on book two at the time, but I have not read I'm a Gay Wizard. I started with In the City of the Nightmare King. We are supposed to be able to read this book independently of book one given that there is a recap. If I'm being perfectly honest, my brain would not dig in and process that summary. The writing felt so rushed and simplified that my brain turned on the skim function all by itself. I'm happy to report that once the book gets past that and into the true chapter one the reading level and interest do go up. The author also noted world-building changes made between books, which made me hesitant to continue at all. To see a note that basically goes "by the way, if you read book one this is now that, and this is now that, etc." it makes me wonder how quickly these books went from the first draft to publication and whether or not more revisions were needed so that these world-building changes could have happened invisibly before the first book was released.

Johnny and his friends, our main four, were formerly having a horrible time in a wizarding school called "The Institute" in book one. Now they've woken up in what looks like a perfectly ordinary US town called Misthaven, reunited with family and expected to go back to regular public school as if nothing happened. Too bad it's all a ruse put on by The Institute and they're actually in a high-security prison with a whole bunch of "copies" of people they used to know, expected to just happily live fake lives ala "The Truman Show." Escaping will be deadly.

I loved the concept (and the beautiful cover art) of this book and its predecessor. It's a YA coming of age, fight for what's right, fight for your life kind of deal wrapped up in the wizarding school wrapping paper, but also prominently featuring a gay couple as main characters. This should be gold, and I really wanted to be able to say it was.

Alas, I struggled to finish this book. Even though it only took a matter of hours to read, I struggled. There's very little character growth. I know this is a sequel and the mains were all introduced before, but it doesn't feel like they're any different now at the end of this adventure. The plot itself was an endless sequence of life-or-death hurdles that just kept coming and coming without respite. There was no downtime in between, and some villains and obstacles seemed to pop up purely for the purpose of having another hurdle to overcome. It was hard to keep track of who anyone besides the main four was and whether they were good or bad. So much happened in this book, and yet not much happened at all.

Would I recommend this book? Sure. If you read and enjoyed book one, absolutely read this one. If you're charmed by the idea of loud and proud LGBTQIA in the middle of a teen wizard story, check this out. If you're looking for the next big thing in the teen wizard subgenre, maybe look elsewhere.

I do sincerely wish the author well and hope that their books continue to improve as the series goes on. The concept is gold! I just wish the execution had fulfilled my expectations.

I received this copy from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

I'm a Gay Wizard in the City of the Nightmare King is the sequel to I’m a Gay Wizard and in this book Johnny, Hunter, Alison and Blake have to prove magic and love can save everything and everyone.

In Misthaven, where Johnny's father took him and where all his best friends are now joining him, something isn't right.
The place is actually Dreamhaven, a prison for wizards and now they are trapped in it and when Hunter get sick, they are ready to do anything in their power to save him. In a realm where the Nightmare King rules, they have to fight with their magic and love for one other.

I found this book really cute and sweet! The worldbuilding is interesting, the characters are well written and the plot is intriguing, I love Johnny and Hunter and their friends are amazing!

I am so excited by the chance to read an LGBTQ novel. This one wasn't a disappointment. I identify with a lot of the harsher elements represented in this book. I see a lot of very critical reviews and while I don't disagree with them. I personally did not feel triggered at this time. That way of writing and when aproching these elements did remind me of fanfic. But I happen to like fan fiction a lot. For me this book was heavy but had it's place. I think it is shocking and those words are shocking but they are also real. Thank you for the chance to read this book NetGalley

First of all, thank you for the recap at the beginning of the book. But I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It was a bit... hectic, I guess is the word. I thought that once I got to know these characters better, that I would be able to get into the book better but that never really happened for me.

Não chega a ser um livro ruim, só achei um pouco imaturo e foi dificil acreditar que isso é a conclusão de alguma coisa, espero que tenha mais livros e que eu possa acompanhar o progresso dele.

I really loved the first book so I was WAY excited to read the second one early on and dare I say, it exceeded my expectations. The improvement between the first and the second book is huge when it comes to world building and the story picked up pace way faster than the first one. While the first one might take a while to get into, this one sucks you up in its world within seconds and won't let you go. I couldn't stop reading, too curious about what might happen next.
Though it was said that you can read this one separately from the first one, I definitely wouldn't recommend it. If I hadn't read the first one, I'd be confused throughout this whole book. The relationships between the characters were written out pretty well though sometimes a bit confusing, especially when it comes to Alison, which made it an interesting read. I can't wait to see what the author might write in the future and if this series will turn into a trilogy (or more) because I can't imagine the series ending like this. Overall, I would give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

It's a action-packed and a little immature book, and definitely not something I would normally read. I didn't find it very good - it felt a lot like someone's first attempt at writing. But there was a lot of passion there, so I do look forward to observing how the author progresses as a writer in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC of this book.

I firstly have to say that I didn't finish this book.

When I initially requested the ARC from Netgalley, I was unaware that it was the second book in a series. My mistake (holds hands up) one I have learned from and now check over at Goodreads.But I digress...

The author informed me that this book could be read independently from 'I'm a Gay Wizard' when I mentioned I was struggling with understanding what was happening and the brief recap that started the book. A warning light should have been when I saw that the author had also explained in the prior to chapter one that he had renamed certain species though why I wasn't sure.

The 'recap' left me utterly confused and I chose to read the first book (review is on goodreads 2 stars) to see if that helped. Sadly it didn't and I found the story of book two to be as confusing and disorientating as the first book.

Thankfully, there wasn't a repeat of the vicious assault (or wasnt prior to me stopping reading) but there were mentions of upsetting incidents for our now four main characters (Johnny, Alison, Hunter and Blake) including the death of Alison's mother whose illness had been mentioned in book one. Whilst I understand that books cannot always be happy 24/7, I felt like this girl had already gone through so much and the death was unnecessarily cruel. Whilst it does set up Alison's distancing from Johnny; her 360° personality turn and distrust of her longterm friend wasnt believable.

I tried to continue reading so that I could do two things, give an honest and full review; and also see if there would be light finally at the very dark and somewhat disastrous journey Johnny and his friends had been through in book one. It instead felt like I was wading through quicksand mentally and wasnt enjoying the story at all.

Like its prequel, book two needs more world building and contrast from all the teenage angst and darkness.

The arc also features repeated grammatical mistakes which I hope are caught before its release.

I was drawn in by the title, and the book itself did not disappoint. I feel that because I haven't read the first book, I was missing out on some key details but that's just motivation to go back and read. Also, the cover is so lovely!

When I request this book I din't pay attention that this one is de second book of a serie and I haven't read the first book yet!! So when I read de first one, I'm gonna come back and read this one to give a better and real review!!