While there was the occasional clunky phrasing and instances where the style of dialogue and narration felt a little jarring, these were more than overshadowed by how engaging the narration was. The angst was real! Alyce’s voice being so emotive also heightened my emotional distress during the many arguments and thorny spots, but her sarcasm often made me laugh too. The constantly changing tensions between the characters (especially Alyce and Aurora) kept ‘Misrule’ very compelling, even in less ‘action’ or twist-rich portions. Interestingly, even some long-gone characters are given some extra layers in hindsight.

If you’re into morally grey characters, you’re in luck – almost all the main and supporting characters fall into that blurry category, multi-layered from their unique contexts, personal agendas and steeped in their own complex and bloody histories. Around the book are purple fabric, a purple petal, green glass pen, paper roses, a fanned open book and a jar of water. ID: Flatlay photo with a hardback book featuring a blond woman with purple eyes in a hooded cloak. I would certainly consider Alyce morally grey, her conscience waking occasionally and her more destructive impulses ebbing and flowing with her (and her Court’s) anger and fear. It was fascinating to meet those other peoples deemed ‘dark’ and ‘monstrous’ by humans and the Fae/Etherians, and I developed quite a soft spot for the Imps in particular.Īlyce is now known as Nimara, and she feels both familiar from Book 1’s characterisation yet so changed (especially with Mortania’s spirit now well-rooted inside her), now that she’s been able to rain full vengeance upon the Etherians who mistreated her and others that they considered monsters. We open with a Prologue that sets up nicely for the 100-year time-jump, and I loved how vividly the Dark Court came to life atop the ruins of Briar. This book is incredibly bingeable – who cares if it’s 3am?! I need another chapter!! – and it yanked me out of my reading slump with the force of a dragon. But could Aurora ever love the villain Alyce has become?Ĭontent warnings (highlight to see): blood, injury, gore, death, violence cutting self as part of ritual loss of a loved one reference to past death of an F/F couple

But that love came with a heavy price: Aurora now sleeps under a curse that even Alyce’s vast power cannot seem to break, and their dream of the world they would have built together is nothing but ash.Īlyce vows to do anything to wake the woman she loves, even if it means descending into the monster Briar believed her to be. Princess Aurora saw through Alyce’s thorny facade, earning a love that promised the dawn of a new age.

Heather walter malice book 2