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The start of the book was a little slow with the introduction of multiple POVs. I did find some of the POVs more interesting so some dragged even worse. That's one of the main reasons I couldn't give this 5 stars.

This book was not an easy read, but it was a good read. It has a lot of heavy topics between British Muslims dealing with racism and seeing how a young boy was radicalized to join IS. The family dynamics throughout are a major point, with the characters having to decide what they're willing or able to forgive while tackling their own demons. The characters felt real with all their flaws and characteristics.

The ending was absolutely insane. This book obviously has a lot of dark themes that run throughout, so I would recommend just making sure you're in a good mindset before picking it up.

I liked Liz's attitude through this. Definitely felt too similar to the first book but with way less plot. But Liz made up for that a bit.

Aehako is the best. That's all.

But also, I really liked Kira. Her fears based on health concerns was legitimate and not falsely added on to try to tack on drama. I laughed so hard many times through this one. The courting gift had me wheezing every time it was brought up.

This was a very sweet story and I really appreciated that Ruby didn't just skip over the details like Harlow's translator that was embedded into her ear. This one lacked on the spice because there was not resonating at the get-go and Aehako actually courted and wooed Kira. I really enjoyed this one.

After loving The Sunbearer Trials, this one fell flat for me. Which was a disappointment with the character growth that occurred (but mostly in the last quarter of the book). It dragged on in parts to the point that I almost wanted to DNF it, but I wanted to see how the duology ended since I loved the first book. There were just too many "side quests" that they popped into on their way to Los Restos and those could have been slimmed down a lot to get the same points across. I think it's still worth a read if you liked the first one.

This book surprised me a bit. It gave cozy vibes but still tackles the large issue of grief and how there's no such thing as just moving on. There is not much world-building, and I would have liked to have a better grasp of things, but I understand wanting the focus to be on the characters and their grief. Contains found family, LGBTQ representation, and flawed characters.