Review: Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong

Summary

Sisters Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. Or at least, they were.

Their village is gone. Their friends have betrayed them. And now, the emperor has sent them on a mission to rescue the children of Edgewood—accompanied by Prince Tyrus and a small band of imperial warriors. But the journey proves more perilous than they could have imagined. With treachery and unrest mounting in the empire, Moria and Ashyn will have to draw on all their influence and power to overcome deadly enemies—not all of them human—and even avert an all-out war.

My thoughts

Have I mentioned before that I love Kelley Armstrong’s books? I’m still so happy that she started writing epic fantasy and I’m so glad that this book was not as good but pretty close to the first one in the series and that I enjoyed it so much.

When I read a Kelley Armstrong book, I’m there 99% for the characters. Her worldbuilding and such is great too but it’s always her characters that make me fall in love with her books. I slightly lost interest in Ashyn, even more so than in the first book, because compared to her twin Moria she just doesn’t have these epic adventures and exciting chapters.
I loved though that the female characters are kicking ass in this one and we get to see female warriors and such who show that not only the guys can fight.

What I felt kind of meh about was the romance. It drove me crazy that it’s quite obvious that my ship will sail at some point but that it’s taking them so damn long. Overall the romance wasn’t that well done and there could have been less and more emphasis on friendship instead. It didn’t help that we moved into love triangle territory even though it wasn’t one of the annoying type where the girl is super confused about her feelings for two different guys and I’m already sure how that is going to turn out in the end anyway.

Another thing that made this slightly less awesome than the first one was the lack of magical beasts. I absolutely loved those in the first book and was hoping there was going to be a lot more in this one. There were some, and those were definitely awesome and made for exciting parts in the story, but I wanted a bit more. I absolutely love this world Kelley created but I wished there would be a little bit more background story.
What I did love though was how dark and brutal this story was. The first book in the series had its dark parts too but this one was definitely on a new level of gruesome.

What I “hated” was the ending. I saw it coming from miles away and I was so damn happy that it really did happen but then the book is just over and you don’t get to read about the characters’ reaction to the situation and it just killed me BECAUSE I NEEDED MORE. Just a little bit, just one more chapter.

Empire of Night is by Kelley Armstrong so I knew I was going to love this one. The plot doesn’t move forward that much and there is a lot of obvious foreshadowing but as I love these characters so much, I didn’t mind at all. A great sequel that ends in a mean cliffhanger that makes crave the next book immediately.