I received a reviewer copy of The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart from the publisher Orbit books from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: This is second in a series so its hard to set-up without spoiling, but our main characters: Lin, Jovis, Mephi (my favorite, favorite, favorite!), Phalue, Ranami, and Nisong are all back and we watch the impacts of the first book take place.

What I Loved: I love Mephi and I actually really loved Phalue and Ranami’s storyline, it seemed very appropriate and was paced appropriately! This storyline was more

What I didn’t like so much: Okay, I didn’t love this sequel. I really enjoyed the first book in the series and found it promising. There were so many different mysteries left to be solved and so much adventure to be had. We dove in filled with excitement and were disappointed. I thought one of the major storylines that could have spread throughout the trilogy got wrapped up to quickly. The pacing felt off and it seemed we didn’t have any mythology to answer a looming mystery. I felt like bad decisions were made that didn’t seem to fit the character. This book took forever to get through cause we cringed through. We are not sure we will continue on.

Who Should Read It: People who love want to see what comes next in the first book.

Summary: The second in a series.

Stewart did a great job with this 2nd installment of moving the story along as all #2 books do. There were a few times were the story felt a little slow or I felt it was a bit repetitive but overall, a good middle book for the trilogy.

This book is absolutely phenomenal. I devoured this one in a single sitting (which yes lasted 36 hours), and then I devoured the next one to come out. An incredibly intelligent look at the world around us.

I loved the first book in this series, but the second book didn't have the same spark. It was an alright read, but I feel like it has middle-book syndrome.

The Drowning Empire series is quickly becoming one of my favorites that I’ve ever listened to. While it’s a LOT of information, Andrea Stewart does an amazing job of reminding us of plot points we may have missed, parts of the magic structure we may not understand, and writing in a way that feels very modern to make things less confusing. I’m still having a hard time imagining what Methy and Thrawna look like (apologies for incorrect spelling - I listened to the audiobook), but all I know is that I want one.

A very good series for anyone looking to dive into longer fantasy stories while still being able to hold your attention. I think I liked the first book just a tiny bit more, but both have been wonderful so far!

Ya I know what you are thinking. If you hated book one why get book two. Well I did an oops and grabbed this one before I even tried book one. Well it didn't work out at all for me either. Where book one had the voice of a child this one did the same thing. I still felt like I was in the POV of a kid. I wanted to love these so much as I loved the covers but it just wasn't meant to be.

Rating: 4.5/5 returned bone shards

Format: e-book & audiobook. I’d like to thank the author and Orbit for sending me an e-arc of this book to review!

To sum up:
This is the sequel to The Bone Shard Daughter, so this book picks up right where we left off! Lin is trying to run an empire in a world full of enemies and factions who want to bring her down because she is her father’s daughter.

What I enjoyed:
This review is long overdue! For the longest time, I haven’t been in the mood for epic fantasy for a while (sad) but I think this book finally broke my slump! Part of it might have been switching to the audiobook version of the book which was really fantastic. There is a great cast of voices and I totally got sucked in. I loved the first book and this was a great follow-up on the intricate characters and plots from book 1. The world-building is fantastic, the relationships are complex, and the writing is so good!

What was meh:
The only negative I can note is that I was a little less interested in some of the other POVs, but mostly because I was so invested in Lin, Jovis and Mephi lol

Overall, I thought this was a great sequel and I can’t wait to read the next book! April can’t come soon enough.

After defeating her father, Lin hoped taking over as emperor would be a smooth transition, but no one knows who she is and don’t trust the Sukai family after the terrors of tithing festivals and constructs. But with Jovis, who has become a folk hero, at her side she decides to travel across the empire to announce the ending of tithings, return everyone’s bone shards, and try to get the governors to lend her their support, both for her rule and to build an army. Because not only is Lin dealing with the distrust of the empire, an army of constructs who didn’t appreciate her putting a bounty out and her plans to dismantle all constructs are making their way across the empire, conquering islands and killing the people. It also doesn’t help that the army of constructs is being led by a woman calling herself Nisong and claiming to be Lin’s illegitimate half-sister in a bid to contest her claim to the throne.

If you enjoy political fantasies with many plots and subplots happening simultaneously, you will adore this book and series. All of the characters are complex and have their own motivations. It’s sometimes hard to decide who is good or right because so many of these folks are reacting from places of trauma and trying to survive and thrive with the resources at their disposal. Lin is doing everything to not be her father, but her greatest skill and the skill that has kept her alive is her abilities with bone shard magic, so when she makes grand promises to stop using it, how is she to prove her strength and ability to lead the empire? Jovis may be praised for having rescued children from tithing festivals and his super strength and supernatural abilities, but he’s also just a man who misses his dead wife try to figure out what is best for the people of the empire and how to fulfill oaths he’s made. Phalue is governor of Nephalanu after deposing her father, but she’s also trying to prove herself nothing like him with the help of her gutter-born wife and listening to the people of the island instead of doing only what is in her best interests, all while also contending with the Shardless Few who wish to kill her or at least end the governance of Nephalanu.

There truly are so many machinations at play and so many conflicting goals. It’s hard to know who to trust when you don’t know who is telling the truth or might be an enemy spy. But even among these dangerous, scary, stressful times people are able to build connections and strengthen bonds. I love the growth between Phalue and Ranami now that they’re married and working together to govern Nephalanu. The way Lin and Jovis grow close and lean on one another over the course of this book was one of my favorite points of tension because of the “will-they-won’t-they” energy.

I’m trying not to give too much away, but this book was so fantastic and the audiobook is spectacularly done. I love these characters, even the ones who give me conflicted feelings, and I really cannot wait to see what’s going to happen next, especially with those final few chapters. Things are getting explosive, and it is so masterfully executed!

I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for waiting so long to write this review, especially when it was just soooo good!

I LOVED this book. It’s the second in what is shaping up to be a standout series. Short story, last July I ended up in the hospital for 8 days and was confined to the hospital bed… no getting up for any reason and let me tell you it is so incredibly dull in there! The weird thing is, even though this is a time when you are most in need of distraction I find it is so hard to concentrate on anything at all when I’m in the hospital. I just lay there and stare at the wall or whatever is on the tv and I feel like my brain is just floating away. Being sick definitely is part of it, but also it’s just so hard to think about anything. Weird. I started reading the first book in this series in the hopes that I could find something to keep me going, and it worked! I still couldn’t spend long periods of time reading, but when I could this drew in my attention and helped me through the week. High praise from me, it was just what I needed at the time.

The characters in the book are very well drawn. Their plight is compelling and they show good growth from book one to book two. It’s very easy to get attached to them (I’m looking at you Mephi.) The magic system is fascinating and that does a lot to make this a good read. A middle book can be a challenge but I feel like this one makes a good case for reading the third when it comes out in … 2023?! Oh boy, I have a wait in store. It’s all good. By then I will probably need to re-read the first to to prepare and I’m so ok with that. 🙂 If you couldn’t tell, this was one of my favorite reads of 2021. Looking forward to next year!

The Bone Shard Emperor is the follow-up book to The Bone Shard Daughter, part of The Drowning Empire trilogy. I adored The Bone Shard Daughter, and I went in with high expectations for Emperor. Thankfully, I was not disappointed, and almost feel this is a very rare case of a middle book being even better than the first book.

I can’t get into the plot overly, because it follows to immediately after Daughter, it would spoil that book if you haven’t read it. What I can say is that we see even more politics, adorable companion animals, and revolution, all of which I was a big fan of in the first book.

One of my favourite things about the first book was that there were multiple POV characters, and none of which I didn’t enjoy. I generally find multiple POV’s great, but there’s always that one character whose chapters you kind of want to skim over, the one who doesn’t seem overly relevant or interesting. While I still had favourites in Daughter, I never wanted to rush to get back to them. Each character was compelling. Emperor manages much the same, and with new POV as well. What surprised me the most is that while Jovis was my favourite in the last, Lin’s chapters in Emperor blew him out of the water and she became my new favourite to read about.

Another favourite thing was more animal companions! I’m such a sucker for companions, and I can never have too many, and each time a new one was introduced, I died a little inside from overwhelming cuteness. If the next book has a hundred of these adorable little sass monsters, it still won’t be enough for me. Mephi is still the sassiest of the bunch though, so he still has the most special place in my heart.

This book is such a wonderful follow up to The Bone Shard Daughter. If you’ve been debating reading it, now is the time. The ending is even better - it made me laugh, it made me cry. It left me with so many burning questions, and I can’t wait for the next book.
If you’ve not started The Drowning Empire, now is also the time for you. This is such a great series, and it’s leading up to what I expect to be an exceptional finale. It balances magic, and politics so well, never feeling dry, or being an info dump, and it never feels like just a brainless action either. Everything about it feels so seamless, to get a bit of everything in there.
Read this series!

Solid continuation of the story. A few trajectories made me confused but overall great. Will definitely read the last book in the series when it comes out.

Thanks to Orbit Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy of the book for my honest review.

“When you’re young, you think you can change the world. You think you can bend it to your will. When you’re old, you learn to change your small corner of it and live with the rest.”

This book is the second one in a series, so I had to go back and read the first book to give an accurate review. The only problem I had with this book was the slow start. I had a hard time getting into it, but the plot picked up about a third of the way into more exciting scenes.

We follow Lin, she is the emperor now, but most of the governors are not accepting her rule. An army of constructs is treating her ruling, as well as an ancient race of powerful magicians has returned to take over the Empire. She needed to stabilize her empire and her ruling to the Empire while she had no one to trust and no friends around her. Could she do it?

The plot was a mess at some points. What I loved the most was the dark hard magic system. The romance was interesting, even when it felt forced sometimes. I loved the twists and turns and the action scenes. Lin’s development was done perfectly compared to the first book, and she was by far my favorite character in this book.

Overall, this book was a great read, and I can’t wait to read the next one!

I adored this book's predecessor, and though I didn't like this one quite as much, it was still a genuinely excellent work of fantasy. I loved seeing how much Lin's character has grown and changed since the first book. The world was interesting and the plot was very much entertaining. The plots from the first book held over to this one and I thought they satisfyingly tied them together in some really unique ways. Andrew Stewart is honestly a force to be reckoned with in fantasy and I'm so ready for the conclusion to this series.

I received an ARC via Netgalley.

While I would love to give a full review of this book, I can't. After spending months of picking it up and putting it down while reading the first few chapters, I'm admitting defeat. This series is not for me. However, I do think there are tons of people this would be for. The sci-fi/fantasy elements are there to make this a great story, I just didn't connect in a way that would have allowed me to finish this.

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a good second book in this unique fantasy series. The book starts off slowly and it was initially hard to get into it, but about a third of the way it picks up and is a lot more exciting. Lin is now the emperor, but most governors in the empire have not accepted her rule. The Shardless Few demand she abdicate. Islands are sinking, and an army of constructs is descending from the north, threatening Lin's rule. As if Lin doesn't have enough problems, the Alanga, an ancient race of powerful magicians, have returned to take over the Empire.

This book focuses on Lin's efforts to stabilize the empire and solidify her rule. Lin has no friends, no one to trust and must rely on her wit and guile to run the Empire. She begins to rely more on Jovis, the smuggler that saved her life that she appointed the head of her guard. But can he really be trusted? Lin and Jovis are both damaged and flawed people. Neither has the self confidence to heal themselves, but just as they start to make progress circumstances set them back.

Some storylines in the book are finalized and others are left hanging, setting the book up for an exciting third book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Orbit Books. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an eARC of this book. I loved the first book in this series and was super excited for book two. I will freely admit that I definitely struggled with this second book. The magic system was less explored and the character narratives, although they cross paths more so in book 2 than the first, felt highly disjointed. It took me a long time to finish this book and I ended up picking it up on audiobook to get through. Jovis/Mephi are still fantastic. There were definitely some great interesting plot twists. But overall, I feel like it suffered from second book syndrome. The Alanga plot points were especially interesting though and the romance angle did not feel forced. Looking forward to book 3.

I couldn’t wait to read this second book in The Drowning Empire series. It was a bit slower paced than the first book but still a great continuation.

We pick up right where we left off with Lin and Jovis’ storylines intertwining. I enjoyed the two of them together and their companions. I do wish we had gotten more of Ranami and Phalue. I admit that I didn’t remember much about Nisong or her storyline from the first book, so I was the least invested in what happened to her.

My favorite part of The Bone Shard Daughter was the magic system. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see as much of it in this book, even though I understand why. I did enjoy seeing the character development as loyalties were tested and our main characters all came together.

DNF 55%

This is a very late-in-the-game DNF for me. The sunk cost fallacy was real, not only because it's a meaty book, but because it's the second book of the series.

This book picked up right where The Bone Shard Daughter left off. Lin is stepping into a role of authority (I bet you can't guess which role) and Jovis is now serving in her guard … while secretly serving like 6 other people. I had a few minor issues with the first book, however, the unique shard magic system really carried that book to the point that I didn't have much availability to focus on the flaws. That was no longer the case with this book. I tried to power through, but it just came to a point where I could barely stand to read it for more than a few minutes. I was too lost and annoyed by every little thing, and it was no longer enjoyable.
A few disjointed grievances --

■ The plot turned into a mess of lackluster political intrigue. I could not keep the sides and allegiances straight, much less care enough to stay interested. This was an abrupt change from the first book and brought the pacing from 60 to 0 real fast.

■ Suddenly there was hardly any focus on bone shard magic, which was my favorite part of the first book. Give me more enticing constructs and puzzles to solve. Instead, it was all about the Alanga and I, again, could not stay interested.

■ The tone of the book overall felt cheesy. Some reviews try to pin this on it being an adult fantasy book that reads like a YA fantasy book. I know many YA books that read much better than this. But I will say that the main characters do feel more like teenagers than grown adults.

■ The romance felt so forced. One couple had absolutely no chemistry and yet we seemed to be drawing closer and closer to a relationship. Another couple is newly married, and the book has to remind us several times in every chapter that they are married. The romance wasn't even necessary in this book and yet there it was trying to stay in front of my face the entire time.

Right now this book would sit at 1.5 stars for me, but I won't give an official rating on here because I didn't actually finish it. Oddly enough, despite my grievances, I wouldn't actively tell people not to read this book. The first book was a worthy read, and this might just be middle book syndrome. Clearly, it did not work for me, but it is nowhere near "trash" level like some of my other DNFs. Decide for yourself.

I really enjoyed the 2nd book!
Jovis and Mephi are 100% still my favorite!
I love how you get an even better understanding of these characters and how things start to tie in throughout the book. I didn't find my self bored or the adventures and actions lacking. I will say I really don't like Nisong. Eekkk I won't to see her point of view and stance on her side but it's so hard. I can wait for the 3rd book.

Thank you netgalley for the arc and this review is my honest take on the book.

This was a really great sequel to The Bone Shard Emperor. You can truly see Stewart's writing improve before your eyes, her character building and to be able to experience an amazing battle scene for the first time from her has me even more excited to see the potential scope of book 3.
Full review is on my YouTube channel.