This book was such a satisfying conclusion to the duology. At first, I worried that the FMC and MMC would be separated for most of the book and it would drag, but that’s not at all what happened. Their angst was almost all in fairly close proximity, with a push-pull that felt organic and ultimately satisfying. Both Ren and Sunho had beautiful arcs, and Jaeil ended up being a welcome POV as well. I am glad the author took her time with the epilogue. Every thread felt tied up. I’m going to miss these characters.

Separated from the one person she can trust and taking on a mantle she never wanted, Ren struggles to determine which priorities to chase—stabilize a shaky regime, prepare for impending war, or save Sunho from himself.

While I still really enjoyed this duology conclusion, the tone was a little different from book one, leaning more into the dark, the gritty, and the political schemes. Add to that the dragging pace from 60-80% and third-act-breakup vibes, and this was unfortunately not quite it for me. However, I’m wondering if I just wasn’t prepared for the tone shift / shifted focus and would have liked it more if I’d been prepared.

Content Warnings: violence, gore, emotional abuse, references to suicide

I love Axie Oh, and received a Faecrate and fairy loot copy of book 1, absolutely devouring it as soon as I got it. Book 2 is a worthy sequel and is a rare one that doesn’t suffer from bad book 2 syndrome. Super enjoyable!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for providing me with a copy for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved The Floating World by Axie Oh and absolutely could not wait to dive into this book and find out how the story would end. While this book was a bit darker and paced a bit faster than the first, it still maintained its optimistic and hopeful tone through its characters.

This book hits the ground running and doesn’t stop until nearly the last page. I actually found myself taking breaks to slow myself down so I wouldn’t finish it all at once (a girl has to sleep sometime). Axie Oh’s greatest strength is that she writes her characters in such a way that I am always intensely invested in them, making emotional moments hit me even harder. I thought I would make it through this particular book without crying, but alas. Book: 1, Me: 0.

While the pacing overall was excellent, even with multiple POV chapters, I did feel that the plot accelerated toward the end and then wrapped up perhaps a bit too quickly and neatly. I wanted to see a bit more turmoil and tension at the conclusion, but that’s a very mild criticism. All in all, I was absolutely thrilled with this adventure.

For a book with very high stakes, both tangible and emotional, it’s incredible how well the book maintains its undercurrent of hope and goodness without making the characters seem naive or shallow. Right now, hope in dark times is a very poignant message and it wasn’t lost on me.

I highly recommend this book and the first, as well. Ghibli mixed with Final Fantasy with STAKES. I am definitely adding this to another one of my favorite books by Axie Oh, as they never seem to miss.

Overall, I enjoyed the conclusion to this duology. The continuation of Ren and Sunho's romance was as sweet as ever. I loved them.

Unfortunately, this one felt a little less polished at this stage than The Floating World ARC did though. The pacing was fairly slow in some places and then the ending felt very rushed. It left me wanting a little more with certain aspects of the story, but very satisfied with others. Still, very enjoyable overall to me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC!

I really enjoyed The Floating World and was excited to receive an eARC for this! While I did have fun reading this, it did unfortunately fall short of my (admittedly high) expectations.

Plot-wise I think this was a satisfying conclusion. Everything wrapped up neatly without loose ends. Unfortunately I felt that the pacing was just way too fast for me. It almost felt like this could have been more fleshed out and been made into a trilogy. Alternatively, there were several plot beats that could have been cut out without hampering the overall story.

We get more of Jaeil's POV in this one, which I do appreciate. He was an interesting character that we only get a small piece of in the first book. We also get more of Little Uncle, and he gets way more character development. There is less of Tag and Yurhee in this one, and there are several characters that don't make an actual appearance other than a brief mention. While I would have liked to see more of Auntie, Tag, and Yurhee, I do think that the other characters benefit from having more page time for character development. I grew way more attached to Ren, Sunhoo, Jaeil, and Little Uncle.

The dialogue unfortunately felt quite juvenile. I understand this is YA, but it felt like a step down from the first book. The writing overall felt a little weaker, with there being way more emphasis on telling instead of showing. Things are more heavily explained when they didn't need to be, making some parts feel a little repetitive.

Overall I did enjoy this book and thought it was a good conclusion to the duology! I would recommend it to anyone who's enjoyed Axie Oh's previous works, or who is looking for a fun fantasy duology.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC provided in exchange for a honest review.

I'm very happy with the result of this sequel, it lived up to all my expectations. The Korean fantasy was the strongest point of this one.

This one made me so grumpy I put off reviewing it for weeks bc I simply Do Not Want To. I loved book one so much that I went into book two fully expecting to love it, and I was not ready to be hurt like I was.

One of the most common downfalls of YA books (in my experience) is when the teenage MC is royalty and the court system doesn’t work at all. Ren had the most confusing back and forth between “I’m the celestial maiden, I can do whatever I want” and “I have no power, the council does whatever they want behind my back” and there was no explanation. She would march into a council meeting and try to boss them around, they would say no, she would go “BuT iM tHe CeLeStiAl mAiDeN!1!1” and I would die from secondhand embarrassment. There was no actual political structure that made any sense. I was so confused the whole time.

Something I really enjoy about Axie Oh’s writing is her ability to write friendships. WHERE WAS THAT. Where did my friendships go. Ren and Little Uncle’s friendship was so meaningful in the last book, and in this one he completely moves on for an instalove romance. Like bestie no. That’s not what we’re here for. Even Ren and Sunho’s relationship felt so much shallower than book one.

Bottom line, I put off writing this review for too long and the details are slipping, but I liked book one so much that this one feeling like a generic cliche tropey YA hurt me

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a great finish to a sweet duology. I liked the character development. After Sunho fully transformed into a Demon, Ren must do whatever it takes to save him. Together each of them must overcome their own fears in order to save their home.

WHAT I LIKED:
-Ren and Sunho’s growth both individually and together
-the pacing, it wasn’t super fast paced but it wasn’t slow so it was good

WHAT I DIDNT LIKE:
-the whole back from the dead thing that was not my fav twist
-the romance between some of the side characters felt too forced

So happy I got an arc right after my fairyloot copy of The Floating World arrived!

I usually struggle with duologies. I want to like them, but I often feel like I don't get enough time with the characters and tend to like longer books.

BUT, I found that a duology was a perfect length for this story that Axie Oh wanted to share for this series. I absolutely loved The Floating World, and was so excited to jump back into this world. Ren and Junho are so sweet and lovable, and their dynamic when they are together is precious. I found the story to be fast-paced, picking up where The Floating World left off and constantly on the move. While I usually prefer books that are medium-paced, I felt that this was appropriate for where we were in the story that Axie Oh was trying to tell. There were moments that made me extremely frustrated (I tend to hate it when characters don't communicate), moments that made me ache, and moments that made me laugh out loud. There was a plot twist that I saw coming, but instead of feeling exasperated with already knowing that it would unfold, I just felt sadness because Oh did a wonderful job of developing the characters and making me fall in love with them.

It is bittersweet that the story is over. How the main story ended was satisfying, but man do I want to spend more time with Ren and Junho. Thanks to my experiences with this series and TGWFBTS, Axie Oh is now an instaread author for me.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it very quickly. I think Ren's journey in embracing her powers is done nicely, and I also loved how their relationship progresses. My only complaints is that I actually think this book might've benefitted by being longer, as it feels some parts were rushed in comparison to the first book.

Ren and Sunho don't exactly progress much in their relationship, but honestly it felt fine, because by the end of the first book, it felt like they were already a couple, just no name tied to it just yet. Their arc focused more on self acceptance and loving the other as they are.

Wish we had a bit more of the politics, I think it would've been so interesting to see Ren as queen outside of the conflict of the book.

Solid sequel and conclusion for the book, just wished we'd get to see a bit more from this world.

I recieved an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends for the opportunity.

In my review for The Floating World, I'd said that I'd gone into it expecting it to be written just like The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea had been written, then realized that was unfair as it was very different. WELL! If you're looking for the TGWFBTS vibes, this second book definitely has more of that in my opinion. I feel like this one touched more on the grief that Ren had been harboring for 10 years of her life, and helped her heal. Actually, it touched on Sunho's grief as well and helped him heal as well. I loved getting to read more of Jaeil's POV and learn who he is as a person vs as just a Captain. The Demon and the Light felt like it dove more into the woodcutter and celestial maiden story/mythology and I loved this take on it. I still haven't read the original lore, but I'm glad for the introduction to it via this story.

I am glad the story was split into two books; and I am so thankful I got to read them back to back as eARCs. I don't feel like the flow of the story would have been there had it been one longer book.

I would recommend this duology to people who love mythology with different spins on it; also just because Axie Oh wrote it.

When I read The Floating World by Axie Oh earlier this year, I found a book that was unputdownable. The story was riveting and I found the two lead characters super compelling. I was looking forward to The Demon and the Light since then…but I just didn’t connect with it like I did the first book. There are tons of great aspects and it was enjoyable, but ultimately I can’t rate this one as high as I did with The Floating World (7.75 out of 10, rounding to 4/5).

To her credit, Axie Oh didn’t just rehash the plot of the first book in this second part of the duology. She continued the story and took some interesting and big swings in the process. But for me, the magic of the first book was when Ren and Sunho shared pages together. For a considerable amount of The Demon and the Light, multiple forces have pushed the Heavenly Savior Ren and the Demon Sunho apart from one another, even as they try to get closer together.

I actually think this duology might’ve worked a little better as a trilogy with most of this book serving as the Empire Strikes Back-ish middle portion, but overall it still had a solid story that I enjoyed.

What the first book lacked, it made up for here -- the secondary characters. The Floating World leaned so heavily on Ren and Sunho’s stories that in a lot of ways everyone else was a little bit pushed to the side. Jaeil, Ren’s childhood friend and the son of the general who killed Ren’s mother is a complicated character and the author spends a lot of time on him and a few others, giving them worthy arcs in this series conclusion.

Ultimately, the first book had momentum carried by the tension between Ren and Sunho and their own personal mysteries. Once those mysteries are mostly solved at the start of The Demon and the Light, the story kinda slowed down and it didn’t quite move me like the first book did. It took a bit to get going, but I did enjoy the connection between Ren and Sunho and the ending.

But, if you like Asian-inspired fantasy though, The Floating World duology is a great little two-book series that are easy reads with great romantic payoffs.

***Thanks to Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I had a great time reading the conclusion to The Floating World duology! Overall, I had a really great time in this world and with these characters. I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book and thought that it was well paced. The romance between Ren and Sunho was really sweet and wholesome. It was also good to see their relationships with other characters grow and develop. However, I feel that the last quarter of the book was a little rushed. With the book being YA, I think it makes a little more sense, but the ending still felt a little convenient to me. With that being said, I still think this is a series worth reading, and I'd highly recommend checking it out. It was definitely giving me Studio Ghibli meets anime vibes.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think my true rating of this book is 4.5 but I’m gonna round it up to 5 for platforms that don't allow half stars.

90% of this book was great, the other 10% was fine. The 10% was when this book started to stray back into stereotypical YA tropes/behaviors. Ren and Sunho being so rash when it comes to making decisions about the safety of one another feels off to me since most of their other decision-making is fairly rooted in logic. When it comes to each other they 100% make choices like 17-year-olds. I think this behavior fits in perfectly fine in the context of a YA series, but the rest of the series has a more mature feel in terms of writing style. The other place where this book falls flat is the very end; the big confrontation with the villain feels short and anticlimactic. So much care goes into developing the story and getting all of the characters to the point where they are ready to face anything that it feels like a disservice to the story for the final hurdle to kinda fall flat entertainment wise. The best way to describe it is that the plot is not conflict-averse, but the confrontations are often solved quickly. Honestly I think maybe the author/ publisher should’ve leaned into the YA stereotype of it all and gone for a trilogy. That would’ve given ample time for the character development and world building that I loved in these books but left space for more satisfying battles/confrontations. It felt like conflict would pop up but then it would just kinda shake out instead of being a true challenge to resolve. It may not sound like it but I really did enjoy these books; I love the characters, I like how the story flows, I love the world they are in, and I overall had a great time reading this series and definitely recommend it and other works by Axie Oh to those interested in this type of book.

Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing group, Feiwel & Friends, and NetGalley for the ARC!

A pretty good finale! I liked that this one had more action, plot twists, and emotions.

I also really enjoyed the side characters, they were all so sweet! The main characters got more development too, especially Ren. She didn’t feel as young as she did in the first book, she gave orders, wasn’t afraid of anything, and really came into her own.

There was even more magical atmosphere here, and multiple POVs made it even more engaging. Some parts were sad, some made me laugh or smile, and at times I was genuinely scared for the characters.

I love that this is a duology, not too long, but not too short either. Just enough to fully tell the story and explore everything.

And just like I said after book one, I still really enjoy the writing style, it’s so easy and pleasant to read.

**Will not be published until 9/1/2025
Rating: 4 for fromance and duology fans

My Thoughts:
This Asian YA is touted as Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone. I can see Shadow and Bone, but, in my opinion, Final Fantasy is not the right book to attach to book two from The Floating World. I think Axie Oh is already established enough to stand on her own. There are also many Asian fantasy writers to tie this book to like books from Sue Lynn Tan, Kylie Lee Baker, and Amber Chen. I did not like the nod to Final Fantasy by creating a cover that looks like a game with white anime looking androgynous characters. The first book cover on The Floating World is beautiful in the way the characters, looking more Asian are in the front with the floating world and its castles in the background.

As for the story, it was exciting. Like Heart of the Sun Warrior, the characters, both males and females are often found saving each other. We have gotten away from the "prince" always saving the damsel, thanks to Frozen. What makes this story so worthwhile is that Ren, celestial maiden and queen of Sareniya, is self confident and her loyalty, love and faith are strong. She knows where she needs to do things alone, and she knows where she needs help.

The only negative, however, is that the major showdowns at the end with Teacher and the original Sareniya was anticlimactic. However, I did enjoy Ren's journey to gathering her light power. This was the perfect duology. Any longer would have been too much.

Final note: this could be tagged at LGBTQIA+ but I am not going to. In Indigenous cultures, like native Hawaiians, males with males, especially warriors, was not an issue. We had a name for it, ʻaikane, but it was not unusual. In this story, it is also not hidden or even scoffed at by the other male and female warriors. I think mentioning it will only link it to a heteronormative world, which I do not live in. Unless a book is specifically for the LGBTQIA+ reader, I will stop labeling is as such.

From the Publisher:
The battle is over, but the war is just beginning...

With the help of her friends and allies, Ren managed to topple the General's insurrection, but the Floating World and its territories are still under threat of attack from the rival Volmaran Empire. And far worse, she was powerless to save Sunho from being overcome by the monstrous power in his blood. Now he's gone, transformed into a feral, deadly creature that doesn't even recognize her anymore, and her heart aches for the sweet boy she's grown to love.

But the escalating war will not pause for her grief. Seen by some as a heavenly savior and others merely a figurehead to be manipulated, Ren must use all her courage and cunning to survive the royal court's game long enough to find Sunho and bring him home before he loses himself to the Demon forever.

Publication Information:
Author: Axie Oh
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (October 21, 2025)
Print length: 400 pages

Unfortunately, I think the writing in this book suffered compared to the previous book. There was a lot of straight up "telling" throughout the book - of the character's feelings, of various actions - and not a lot of showing when it could've been easy to do that instead. In other words, the writing really suffered from a lack of description when previously there had been a lot of rich imagery. It made quite a few things not as believable as they could have been and made most of the characters feel flat. The writing for the fight scenes also could have been better - there were a lot of "bursts of light", which sometimes I was really not sure what that means... are they throwing lights around like laser beams? Or sometimes it seems to just surround them like an aura?

Although I did really like Jaeil (for the most part), Sana and Tag - they were great characters, although Sana and Tag were sadly just minor characters. However, I didn't quite believe the relationships since they're basically all love at first sight and then build on absolutely nothing to be apparently life changing (don't want to spoil it but there's one in particular that I really didn't like). Honestly, I think the romance actually dragged the book down in some parts. Also, the plot felt like the author was just trying to fit as many random plot points and subplots in as possible versus building a coherent plotline where all the actions build toward something in the ending. Which is unfortunate, because I think there could have been a lot of potential to the duology with a solid plotline.

I think this book is better for people that enjoy pure romance and romantasy, as well as YA. It all depends on what you value more in books I think.

I absolutely looooooooved this book! It was a PERFECT way to cap off this excellent duology by Axie Oh. There’s amazing character development from every single character that really helped push the story along in such a beautiful way.

Speaking of beautiful, the romance in this book is next level. The way that Ren and Sunho respect and admire each other, how they push each other to be better but also accept each other how they are, it’s truly breathtaking to behold. My favorite quote was “she hadn’t saved him. She’d shown him how to save himself”. That sentiment truly encapsulates these two lovers and my romantic at heart loved every minute of it. Added to that, the other side romances and amazing friendships that are showcased make this a PERFECT book if you enjoy the Found Family trope.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for a copy of the ARC!

A very satisfying conclusion to the Floating World duology. Ren and Sunho obviously care for each, but have things that keep them apart – like being descended from a goddess, or having a Demon inside, or you know, the whole world leterally falling apart. The characters are great and when they kept apart, I empathized rather than shaking my head. I especially loved how Little Uncle came back into the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan’s Publishing Group for this DRC.
#TheDemonandtheLight #NetGalley