The elements that I loved about the first Emily Wilde book are still present in this story and I couldn’t be happier. Emily is still a delightfully grumpy scholar, which is still the perfect foil to Wendell’s lackadaisical sunshine viewpoint of the world. Their banter is still adorable and so fun. Emily is still single minded with her research, for the most part, but in the “Map of the Otherlands” we finally see Emily grow more emotionally, occasionally. Our girl still has work to do. But in this book, Emily, Wendell, and her niece all embark to Austria in search of Wendell’s Faerie door, which will finally lead him back to his home kingdom. But before they get very far in their search, assassin’s sent by his step-mother, and a threat from Emily’s professorial supervisor immediately complicate things and make the journey all the more urgent.

I still love this series even if I didn’t fall head over heels for the second book in the Fallen Gods Trilogy as much as the first. In “Sunbringer” we see just how quickly Elo and Inara crumble without Kissen there to be their guiding backbone, and we see Skedi learn to resist the irresistible: offerings made to the gods. Each character battles more with their own betrayal and grief (except Kissen, who actually just battles fanatics most of the time) and just how destructive blind rage can be even with good intentions. We also get the added POV of Arren, which didn’t always feel that necessary to me, to show that while, yes some gods are actually good, there was still a good reason why the humans went to war with them to begin with. Namely, a lot of the remaining gods continue to manipulate and destroy those that follow them. It truly does show, mainly through the gods as the perfect embodiment, of how absolute power always corrupts absolutely. And while I genuinely loved that, I still didn’t love this as much as “Godkiller”.

I know I say this a lot, but I LOVED the idea of this book. Put the Olympian gods smack dab in New York during the height of prohibition and make them the biggest criminal organization selling booze and running brothels? Uh, yes please! I have recently been on a mafia and organized crime kick so I figured this was the perfect time to finally settle in and read this book, especially since I do love me some Greek mythology. But the story I got wasn’t the one I was expecting, and not in a good way either? Kind of, even now I’m still a bit conflicted.

“Verena’s Whistle” is an urban fantasy adventure that is steeped heavily in Slavic folklore. We follow our main character, Verena, who finds out very quickly that her families dwindling magical talents are needed in order to close a portal that has allowed monsters from another place and time to enter our world. Verena’s family has always known that they are the last line of magical defense should this very thing happen, so there really isn’t much of a secret there. But Verena’s particular talent manifestation comes as a surprise, especially as their magical strength has been dwindling over the centuries. But while the synopsis claims there are secrets and Verena must decide if she’s capable of leading, you’d never know that by reading the book.

I LOVED Spin the Dawn, it was one of my favorite books when I first read it, which set up exceedingly high expectations for the sequel, I will admit. Unravel the Dusk starts off almost immediately from where its predecessor leaves off, with Maia trying to save her kingdom by ensuring the emperor marries Lady Sarnai, but of course Sarnai has other plans. When she runs off, Maia has to step into her shoes and hope no one notices, which isn’t even a good plan on paper given how widely different in temperament both these women are. When the emperor’s foes wage war in force again, it’s left to Maia to find a way to save her country, which becomes harder and harder as she loses her internal battle against the demon inside of her. Gone is the fun plot line from the first book where Maia learns to wield her magic scissors to weave garments worthy of the gods, and instead is replaced by demon magic that, I felt, got overly repetitive.