Which brings me to Saint and Holland, two very interesting characters that I wish had been expanded on more. How these two manage to survive is all about bigger players watching out for them. He just seems to make poor choice after poor choice all for Fable when she herself seems to be all about making poor choices. West is built up to be this big dark character that never really pulls through. They are background characters to move the story along. Maybe I needed that first book but the relationship with the other characters other than West, Clove and Saint doesn’t feel very strong. Fable herself is a bit flat, I think the book is trying to make her more clever than she is. I understood her loyalty to someone like Saint, even if they may not show the same level of love for Fable in return. Fable’s feeling for her time on Jevali to her complication relationship with Saint and finally the family she has found on the Marigold there is enough there that I understood Fable’s feeling. The book does have enough backstory in it that I didn’t feel completely lost without it.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it although I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more had I gotten to read more of Fable and West backstory.

The characters felt too familiar with each other, the backstory glossed over as though it had already taken written and yeah, having finished this I realized this was the second book in the series not the first. As I started this book I got through the second chapter and started to have that feeling that I was missing something.

Namesake adrienne young