Going to give this four stars even though this volume was kind of a bummer for me, with Az taking so much of the forefront again.
Look, if Az really does become the endgame of this series, I...won't regret all my time reading and investing in it, but I probably would get rid of my books. I do believe it would be an interesting story, just not one that I would agree with, at all. But we'll see.
Right now, everything is really strongly pointing towards Sett, and I don't think that's just my imagination pulling me in that direction. Az and Fortna are an important part of Nina's past. She has to go through a resolution of her own feelings before she can make any decisions about what she truly wants. And that's my main problem with Az: he doesn't actually spend any time thinking about what it is that Nina wants.
In actuality, he's an intensely selfish character. He was raised to set aside all of his own desires to simply serve as an empty replacement for a dead prince, playing a role until he could be discarded for the true crown prince. The sweet, loving, good-hearted little brother whom he's now pushed aside simply because he wants to rule the kingdom so he can shape it into a place where he can marry Nina.
That should feel romantic, I guess. But for some reason it just doesn't. And a lot of that is, again, because he never asked Nina if she wanted him to rescue her.
His current plan, now that Nina is "safely" back in Fortna, with things lined up so that the country is protected, at least for now, from an invasion by Galgada, is to kill of Princess Alisha, send Nina away for a year, then bring her back as a lookalike stranger whom he'll eventually marry.
And Nina hates this plan.
She's worked so, so hard to build a new life for herself, with an incredible array of connections across multiple countries. She has a little brother who adores and looks up to her, whom she could've helped guide into being a generous, honorable king. She has friends and family and people to protect. Az isn't even asking her to break these bonds...he was just going to sever them for her. While not even bothering to seek her out or speak to her for a good amount of time once they'd arrived back in Fortna.
When he finally tells Nina that he "needs" her, those are the words that she desperately wants to hear...but are they actually true? Does he want Nina as he actually is, or just some image of her that he's decided upon for himself?
Nina is a pretty straightforward character. She fell in love with Az and with Fortna because she lost the other family/friends she'd cared for, and she wanted so badly to have someone - anyone, she says - need her. She's overflowing with happiness when the old former king praises her for the hard work she did in Galgada. She rushes back, glowing with joy over having been useful, and flops down on the floor in front of the still-catatonic Sett to tell him all about it.
Az...hasn't praised her for that, has he? He's mostly just been really upset that she took her future into her own hands and went to Galgada without letting him shape her future for her. And that's why I just cannot get behind him as the person who will ever truly love her the way she needs to be loved.
Another reason Nina doesn't want to lose her status as Princess Alisha: "I can't protect Sett." Az is literally trying to tear her away from all of her connections, just so she can be reborn as someone he can keep by his side...
Of course, all that gets disrupted anyway by the return of the true Princess Alisha at the end of this volume. I have absolutely no idea what any of the star people and priestesses lore is going to end up being, but I guess that's part of the long road we have to follow.
Hopefully Sett awakens next volume? His few scenes in this one were devastating...with him telling Nina outright that he loves her and that's why he's done this to himself, to protect her from his own brutality...but following her on the ship anyway, even with his shattered heart, because she asks him to. Because he wants to be with her as much as she wants him, too.
I do really love this story and find all the plotting and complex characters so fascinating. I'm just really tired of Azure.