I listened to the audiobook for SIlver Under Nightfall and in general, I prefer reading over listening to an audiobook. So it is hard for me to compare Court of Wanderers to the first book. I enjoyed both but the first book captivated me more. I am tempted to read the first book and then re-read book 2 to see if my experience changes. I would give this a 3.75/5; I am rounding up to a 4. I may adjust this rating after a re-read though!

I read the first one and immediately came to read this one and I’m very confused by the complete change of tone and storytelling. Everything that worked well from the first has been disregarded in this second novel and it was completely jarring. I wanted so much to love this one and I’m sad to say I’ve left feeling quite disappointed.

The sexy and bloody conclusion to The Silver Under Nightfall duology.

A gothic and war hungry fantasy novel by Chupeco sees the return of Remy and his vampire lovers Xiaodan and Malekh as they continue their hunt for the Night Empress. I wanted to love this book, I truly did, but I found the pacing and construction of the story felt overwhelmingly slow and patchwork.

I did enjoy getting to see more of the political intrigue in this installment but felt the drawn out conversations and hard stops had me forcing myself to read. This novel felt extremely long with nothing happening in the first 50% of the book and shoving the action into the last 20%, I was almost considering that this might be a trilogy but it does wrap up nicely.

I'd probably review this as 2.5 stars but bumped it to 3 as there just isn't enough good polyamory rep in literature. I'm a sucker for sexy poly vampires. 3/5

I really enjoyed the first book. Court of Wanderers felt slow and remained slow. The pacing was off and the romance wasn’t exciting like it was in the first.

I’m still interested in Rin’s future projects but this just wasn’t for me.

Despite not remembering a single thing from book 1 aside from the main trio's personalities and relationships (and the plot twist at the end), I did end up liking this sequel more than the first book, even if only marginally.

I quite enjoyed the political intrigue of the vampire courts, and I liked that this book expanded on Remy's character arc, particularly his relationship with his family. I think Rin Chupeco writes great action/fighting sequences, and there's a bit of a murder mystery that I was invested in finding the answer to.

Unfortunately, I just think this book drags on far too long for the first half, then becomes incredibly rushed at the last quarter or so (the middle section is great though). I was almost certain going into this book that it was the end of a duology, yet by the time I was about 80% into the book I was asking myself "Wait—is this actually going to be a trilogy?" Spoiler: it's not. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. I didn't care for any of the side characters (probably because I don't remember half of them from book 1), nor did I care for the human politics.

I'm hovering between 2.5 and 3 stars for Court of Wanderers so I'll round it up because I like polyamorous vampires sue me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

Silver Under Nightfall was one of my favourite books of 2023 so when I received this arc, I was ecstatic. This was a dream come true! But now I wish I never received it. I am incredibly disappointed with this novel. The plot and characters, which were lush and vibrant in the first book, were dull and flat in this one. I will, of course, give the author another shot with their next release- but as for this one, I will recommend people either go in with reasonable expectations or read the first as a stand-alone.

My harsh review has everything to do with how much I loved the first one. Again, it is one of my favourites. this was not a terrible book by any means, I am just terribly disappointed.

I read the first book a few weeks ago, but I was so happy to dive back into this world. While I do not believe this book to be stronger than the first one, it is still pretty amazing. And the characters are to blame for this, I love them so much. I really enjoyed this! Absolutely wonderful writing.

I am so glad to have been able to read this early. I just finished reading Silver Under Nightfall a week ago and was eager to continue to the duology.

While I didn't like this as *much* as SUN, I still really enjoyed it. Remy is such an incredible character. He's witty, self-depracating, so capable, and easy to love. His relationship with Xiaodan and Zidan was so special and read about the respect, love, and devotion they all had for each other. I was so giddy reading their scenes together (the ones that weren't warfare lol).

It's hard to review a sequel without being spoilery, but how the story progress from book one was fantastic. I thought the reveals were super interesting and well thought out.

My only qualm was that there was slightly too much happening somethings it was hard to follow, especially during the battle scenes. Some of the plot was a bit convoluted.

Otherwise super fantastic read. I'm glad I picked up this duology. and the *end*. It was so special. I loved it.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

I’m sad to say that I did not enjoy reading this book. I loved the first book, was so eager to jump into the second, and I have no idea what went wrong but all of this is just not working.

While the first book had a strong balance of action, mystery, and romantic growth for the 3 main characters, this book feels very disjointed and unfocused. So much time is spent world building and discussing lore, and yet I still don’t fully understand the layout of the 8 courts and their leaders. The pacing is all over the place, and I felt so disconnected from the characters that I wasn’t even having fun following them on their journey. I just kept wanting it to end. Considering what an epic conclusion this had, I really wanted to love how we got there. Most of the time I just found myself confused, with what I really wanted from this book just out of reach.

I want to preface this by saying I am very aware this is not an erotic romance novel, nor do I expect it to be one. I’ve always enjoyed the way Chupeco wrote sex into this story without letting smut overpower the focus. However, the way sex is used in this book feels misplaced. I was surprised to see the author skip over several intimate moments between the characters but then add an exhibitionism sex scene in the middle of a court leaders meeting. It took me completely by surprise and didn’t feel like this sort of story had a place for that sort of scene. I mean Jesus, Xiaodan’s mentally ill mother was in the room?? I’m so confused why this had to exist. I would have much rather the sex in the story mean something, the places I wanted it were *always* fade to black, and the places where it was present always came out of nowhere and made me uncomfortable more than anything.

Overall I don’t think this is a horrendous book, I think I can see what Chupeco was trying to accomplish and I don’t hate it. But man, I had some high expectations for this story and I don’t think any of them were met. It feels like what could have been a fantastic story was RIGHT THERE and just consistently slipped out of my fingers.