The Savior's Sister

The Savior's Series #2

by Jenna Moreci

Leila Tūs Salvatíraas, Savior of Thessen and magical Queen of Her realm, is worshiped by all.

Except Her father. He wants Her dead.

The Sovereign’s Tournament—a centuries-long tradition designed to select The Savior’s husband—is days away, but Brontes’s plan to overthrow his daughter ignites, shifting the objective of the competition from marriage to murder.

With the help of Her sisters and some unexpected allies, Leila must unravel Brontes’s network and prevent Her own assassination. But as the body count rises, She learns the deception runs far deeper than She imagined.

When She finds Herself falling for one of the tournament competitors, Her father finds himself another target for murder.

Can Leila save Herself and Her beloved, or is their untimely end—and the corruption of Her realm—inevitable?

TRIGGER This book contains graphic violence, sexual situations, physical abuse, adult language, and references to suicide.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adult, Fiction, Romantasy, Ebooks, Fantasy Romance

656 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2020

About the author

Jenna Moreci is an award-winning romantasy and writing craft author and YouTube sensation. Her first installment in The Savior’s Series, The Savior’s Champion, was voted one of the Best Books of All Time by Book Depository. Following the release of her first writing craft book, Shut Up and Write the Book, she’s been asked to speak for many literary communities and affiliations about the writing process and romantasy genre, including Robinson College at the University of Cambridge, the University of Groningen, and the London Screenwriters’ Festival.

Born and raised in Silicon Valley, Jenna spends her free time snuggling up with her charming husband and their tiny rescue pup, Buttercup.

Reviews

[jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

i picked this up immediately after finishing ‘the saviors champion’ because i was so excited to continue the story and dying to know what happens next. however, this is not a continuation of the series (like i thought it was). this is a retelling of the first book, but from another POV.

normally, i dont mind these kinds of books, especially if i love the original story (which i did). i think this kind of retelling offers a unique opportunity to provide the reader with new information and the chance to bond with different characters. buuuut 8 out of the top 10 reviews for this book are 1 and 2 stars and i completely understand why and agree.

i do not think this story works as a full length novel (and it definitely should not have been longer than the original book its retelling), nor should this have been included and published as the next book in the main series. either it should have been shortened and added as a .5 companion novel, or the additional information the reader gets from this should have been originally included in ‘the saviors champion.’ those are the only ways i see this working out.

too many of the characters are completely different from the first book, too much of the narrative is literally copied and pasted, and what holes i was willing for overlook in the story are now giant craters the size of earth. its like the author took everything i loved about ‘the saviors champion’ and ruined it.

im willing to round up because, at its core, this is a story that i do enjoy and i did learn a few new things about the characters and plot. im just praying to the book gods that the next book picks up where ‘the saviors champion’ leaves off and i can forget that this installment even happened. lol.

↠ 2.5 stars

[Gemma Riddle d'aniello · Rating 1 out of 5]

I swear, if I have to read the word "cock" one more time...


This is going to be long and possibly spoilery, so if you loved this book, just skip my review because we are obviously not going to have the same opinion. Also, English is not my first language, so sorry in advance for every mistake. I didn't particularly like The Savior's Champion when I read it, but I wanted to see where the story was going. Nowhere apparently. You see, I was convinced this was a follow-up to TSC. I guess it is my fault for not reading the blurb. But still…why isn't this a sequel? Why would you rewrite the same story before the series is over? And make it an entire book? I see no reason for it. I certainly didn’t found one in its 600+ pages. What I did found were plot-holes everywhere, heaps of characters and not one of them memorable, a kick-ass heroine that is actually really, really dumb, and endless talk of sex and male genitalia that just made everyone sound immature.

Extremely repetitive
This book is not strong enough to stand on its own. Even the most wonderful plot needs to be told from the right POV. Imagine the Hunger Games but written from the perspective of, let's say, Katniss's sister Prim. We would be stuck in District 12, only occasionally tuning in to watch the games, but never actually being in the core of the action. In TSS we still follow the tournament and the romance occupies a good chunk of the book, but we just have to read how many times Leila bathes during the day. The pacing is all over the place. Every scene it's like wash, rinse, repeat. The worst were in the Senate. It always started with Leila going in not having a clue of what was happening (she never had a plan, or a speech prepared in advance that could help her deal with her father) and then being reminded extensively that she holds no power, thus being humiliated by Brontes and the Senators. Every character seemed to follow a pattern every time he/she appeared on the page. There were no surprises, their evolution was a flat line throughout the book. Tension was non-existent. And how could it be otherwise since I already know what is going to happen?

Description
It was either too much or not enough. A lot of characters are described in minute details but we don’t really need to know every eye color, or length of hair, or the exact physique of every last one of them. It’s just too much information for so many characters and I ended up being confused on who was who. It really didn’t help that everyone seemed to be extremely good-looking. When we were with the men in the tournament, I just pictured muscles, and I’m pretty sure the author was picturing that too while writing. I guess it boils down to personal preference, but I think a description is stronger when you are able to pinpoint the few traits that make the character unique, then write it down in a manner that evokes an image in the readers’ mind. But a list is not going to evoke anything. And that brings me to the descriptions of the scenery. I spent a long time trying to figure out what bothered me about it.

“A sea of color stretched ahead—an elaborate garden filled with manicured trees, mosaicked pots, and flowers of all kinds.”
“Marble busts lined the walls, stained glass windows cast rainbows along the floor, and vaulted ceilings loomed high overhead, rendering them mere specks amid the majesty.”

Get it? She uses the plural for everything. The pots, the busts, the ceilings, the flowers of all kinds (what kind? can’t you tell me at least one?). I am not a writer, I am in no position to give advices, but I read a lot of books and these descriptions are too vague. One pot well described is going to be more memorable than just “mosaicked pots”.

“Purple ribbons wrapped the staircase bannisters, and ornamental gold stars hung from the ceiling. […] this year the opulence was off-putting.”

Ribbons and stars are opulence? Wtf? Half of the time I had trouble picturing where the action was taking place and who was where in a room, or in relation to the building.

Poor worldbuilding
TSC world doesn’t feel fleshed-out. Superficially it looks like a solid wall, but the moment you try to poke a hole in it, the wall crumbles down. A lot of it is taken from Roman-Greek culture and set in a desolate land where water and food would be scarce if not for the intervention of the Savior. But that’s it. I don’t remember anything else about it. This NA novel (it’s really a YA/wannabe erotica) wants to do political intrigue, when the political system is barely explained.

“We’ll bring it to a vote,” Brontes said.
“This is not a democracy,” Leila snapped.

Ok, so what it is? A monarchy? An oligarchy? Are there castes, nobility? What are its political figures and how is the power distributed?

“[…] I’ve told you at length that come My twentieth birthday, I will be severing whatever it is that binds us together,” Leila said.
“Your Holiness, the law states we are to serve You indefinitely.”
“The law you yourselves have written. How convenient.”

Excuse me, but when the previous Saviors were alive, there were really no other state figures in place to prevent anyone from usurping the throne? They could just write a law that says “Brontes rules forever, fuck the Saviour” and it would be okay? I guess the Savior and the Sovereign should emulate a queen-king dynamic, but the Saviour is literally considered a goddess, so shouldn’t she be the most important figure? A deity should not be regarded in the same way you regard a head of state. If you want to make her a ruler, that’s great, but you have to give a solid reason when people decide to oppose her. Yes, there are rebels apparently. Exactly to what are these people rebelling to? To peace and prosperity? Thessian culture comes off as very violent and crude, but that doesn’t even make sense, does it? If they lived in peace for centuries, why would they be so violent-centric? Romans were all about their military because they were constantly conquering land. Thessen is barely surviving because of special snowflake powers.

“You don’t believe it,” She said. “That I heal the land.”
The other Senators looked to Brontes, who remained aloof. “Your magic tricks are charming,” he said. “But the land has been fertile for centuries.”“[…] I keep the land fruitful. I turn the realm green. My light does that, as did the light of every Savior before Me. Or have you forgotten where we came from? Thessen was a wasteland.”

Leila, darling, can’t you just show them? Can’t you make some plants whiter or something? That would solve a lot of your problems. Now, if her powers were fake, that would be entirely different. In that case, I could buy that the Senators would be just chill with the idea of killing her. All those words and dialogues spent discussing cocks would have been better spent if used to give information to the reader. Just saying.

Smart heroine…not.
Leila’s characterization baffles me. We know she was kept in the fortress her entire life and is not permitted to rule, that she’s sheltered and ignorant of the world…and it doesn’t make sense. She had a head-start on her father’s plan by at least ten years and chose to do…nothing? She didn’t study politics, she didn’t bother recruiting allies in the Senate, she just killed and killed, because that is not going to spawn new enemies or enlarge her father’s network *facepalm*. It is suggested that she doesn’t even know how her kingdom looks. At some point Tobias is talking about hiding into the woods; these woods even have a proper name and they “stretch for miles”, and Leila is all like “What woods?”. I mean, is there not a map of Thessen in the entire palace? (oh, wait, there is, in the Senate’s room, right in front of your nose) How were you even educated? And even if an education was denied to you, why didn’t you seek it on your own, if you claim to love your realm so much? She also has magic on her side. She can travel anywhere in the palace, but she cannot travel to places she’s never been to, so logically she could never go outside the fortress. Excuse me? You can fucking appear and disappear as you like, why have you never thought of sneaking out before? She spends all her time making plans with Romulus and Delphi, but she can’t figure out a way to go outside? It’s not like she has an army watching her wherever she goes. One guard is stationed outside her chamber.
This limitation is invalidated by the author herself. If Leila can share her gift with others and she can share it with Tobias that has lived outside and can bring her out…why didn’t she think of this before?? Surely there are people in the palace going in and out. Are there no servants bringing in supplies, no people being hired from the villages, no visitors?
You would think her longing to be free would translate into a need to know the realm through whatever mean accessible to her. But no. Thessen who?
Her shadow walking seems to work only when the author says so. Whenever Leila is in grave danger she conveniently forgets how to use it. If I knew someone wanted me dead, I would train the hell out of my powers to be able to use it under stress. But I’m not a badass heroine in a novel, so what do I know. And last, the most important thing she always seems to forget…she’s a goddess. People call her Your Holiness! Use that to your advantage, try to gain the Senator’s trust instead of acting like a toddler all the time. She could literally just say “Hey, I’m an extremely powerful being and also the only thing keeping you and your land alive, want to join forces?”
I’m sorry Leila, but you suck at this. You shouldn’t be ruling anything.

Confusing plans
If you take time to analyze Leila, Brontes sheer stupidity suddenly makes sense, as it must be hereditary. What exactly is his objective here? He wants the throne, okay, we get it, but who the hell is he going to rule if everyone dies? He wants to rule the world, so fuck Thessen. Having no food, no water, no fit soldiers to sustain a war (or, no soldiers at all, if the population dies is really going to help you conquer all those other kingdoms. Go Brontes. His plan to assassinate Leila while she was a child didn’t take place (Romulus apparently came up with a reason to sway it, but we are not supposed to know the details, I guess) but also, he had already decided that if the plan did fail, the next move would be to strip Leila of her power and keep her hidden in the palace. So…he gave up plans entirely? He couldn’t come up with another until she was an adult and therefore more difficult to control? What? We never get a reason why he’s not present during the tournament. You hired assassins, not even being subtle about it (oh look, three scrolls from the contestants are missing, I wonder who the killers are?), so why are you not keeping an eye on things? Leila’s plan only worked because of reasons, not because it was well thought out. If no one ever saw her face outside the palace, isn’t logical that the first thing Brontes would do is to describe the target to his assassins? Only at the end of the book he finally figures out what he should have done in the first place, that is, to switch Leila’s identity to someone else so that he could kill her without consequences *sigh*.
I must be honest, though, I did enjoy Brontes in the book. He was so over the top evil, so at least the scenes with him were funny. I also liked Cosima for the same reason, because she was so obviously a double-faced traitor and she loved every second of it.

Copy and paste
This is the one thing that I can’t forgive the author, and also the main reason why you should think twice before deciding to rewrite the same book: every dialogue between Tobias and Leila is rewritten exactly as it was in the previous book. Every. Single. Line. Not only are they infinite, but let’s say I just finished reading TSC, what am I supposed to do? Skip it? I understand the author couldn’t change it because of continuity, but you don’t need to rewrite the entire thing! Just highlight the most important parts and leave space for new content
.
Instalust
The relationship between Tobias and Leila is not built up at all, is just instalove. If you are able to wade through the pages and pages of cringy dialogue, it becomes clear their only focus is physical attraction. Leila just won’t shut up about his bronze skin and sculpted chest. Her knees would get wobbly because of the stupidest things.

The Artist. Age: 21. Hair: brown. Eyes: black. She faltered. Black?

Girl, it’s black, not sparkling gold. Black eyes are very common in my country, are they not in the rest of the world?
And when there is an actual sex scene, it’s just...bad.

“She took in his carved form, his bronze skin fading a shade or two at his waistline.
His cock.
A gasp swelled in Her throat. It was staring right at Her. Long, smooth.
Spectacular.”

It stares? My God Tobias, you should get that checked out.

“She grabbed his waistband, ready to set him free, to unleash his beast, to behold his cock for the first time.”

I just. I can’t.


Fantasy?
There are a lot of instances where the fantasy setting is ruined by modern slang. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard to get this right, very few authors can pull it off, especially if the fantasy world you created doesn’t have any ties to our own.

“Brontes,” Delphi said. “And the shitstorm he’s about to usher in.”

Are you a teenager from the 2000s? There are words that simply shouldn’t exist.

“Tobias, I’m trying to bless you.”
“And I’m trying to kiss You. We can multitask.”

Computers are thing in this world, apparently. And so is Hebrew!

“Tobias [...]That’s what your name means. Goodness.”
“And what does Leila mean?”
She tensed. “Darkness.”

Maybe I’m nitpicking, or maybe I just have to take for granted that Hebraic culture existed at some point in this world. But honestly, after reading so many inconsistencies my suspension of disbelief was nowhere to be found.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading TSS; by all means go ahead and enjoy, but TSC is clearly the superior novel, even if it isn’t a perfect book, and if you want to experience the series you should start from there. Maybe when Jenna writes the sequel I will pick it up but for now I'll stick to the videos.

[Fatima · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was sent an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Warning: this contains spoilers. 💕

—

Oh boy.

Where do we start?

This book had so much potential, but it just fell flat for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind reading a book knowing what will happen. I love reading about a universe, and the politics behind it. I love books with monarchies, and corrupt governments. Now, let’s break it down.

The Magic System: it didn’t make sense, and I feel like it wasn’t explained well. I feel like it should’ve been elaborated, and taken time to flesh out, and develop. It fell flat, and overall, I wasn’t “convinced” of the magic system in place. Leila can “shadow-walk” (which the author explained), but 80% into the novel, we find out she can control the weather with her emotions (?). Overall, the magic system was poor.

The Romance: I liked the romance in TSC. It wasn’t the best romance, but I was convinced the love/lust they shared was real, even if it was insta-lovey. But this book destroyed whatever chemistry they shared, and flushed it down the drain. I understand TSS is identical to TSC, and told through a different perspective, but cmon. The romance should’ve been built.

The Pacing: The pacing was all over the place. Some scenes were too long, and dragged on. Some scenes were too short, and were too quick. Some scenes should’ve been cut out completely, and didn’t serve a purpose.

The Love Interest: I loved Tobias in TSC, but loathed him in TSS. He was two-dimensional. He had no redeeming quality. He wasn’t interesting.

Other complaints:

•The dialogue was funky. Half of the time, I didn’t know who was talking. In some scenes (most), the dialogue was too long, and didn’t serve a purpose. The characters just go on and on and on.

•Leila’s character fell flat. I didn’t find anything special about her. She didn’t have a solid, distinct voice. I didn’t like her, to be honest. I found her annoying a lot of the times (which is strange to me, because I loved her in TSC). She makes stupid decisions, and doesn’t use her magic to her advantage. Then again, the magic system wasn’t explained well.

•Most characters fell flat. The only characters I enjoyed in this book were Pippa, and Cosima. Everyone else sucked.

•This book should’ve been combined with TSC, or cut in half. But that’s just my opinion.

•I love politics. I love fake political systems. I love real political systems. I love dystopias, “utopias”, corruption, monarchies, democracies, everything. But the politics in this book wasn’t well fleshed out. I didn’t care for the political system at all, and found it to be boring.

•It was too long. I don’t mind reading long books. I read a 1200 page book in 5 days. I often finish 600 page books in 2 days, or less. In fact, I prefer long books most of the time. I love spending time with characters. But this book? Way too long. Half of it was just fluff, and it could’ve been at least 50k words shorter.

•Some parts should’ve been elaborated (the magic system, and politics). The author should’ve spent more time writing about them. The characters emotions should’ve been described in detail (at the very minimum, a sentence). The most emotion we got out of a character was Cosima’s face twitching, and Leila’s anger towards Cosima.

•Some parts should’ve been shorter (dialogue, dialogue, dialogue). I’m a sucker for dialogue, but the dialogue here dragged on.

•Transitions between scenes were awkward, and funky. Half of the time I didn’t even know the scene transitioned.

•There were too many characters all at once. I feel like TSS would’ve been better had there either A) been less characters. Or B) Less characters to focus on at once. Some characters had very minor roles in this book, but there’s pages upon pages upon pages do the m/c conversing with them, and it didn’t contribute to the plot.

•Leila is so dumb at times. Half of her insecurities don’t really make sense, and contradict her character. I understand why she’s jealous of Cosima at times (that made sense), but her losing it when Tobias says “I don’t want The Savior” didn’t make sense to me. It would’ve made more sense had her insecurities stemmed from Tobias saying shit like: It’s all the Savior’s fault, or The Savior is the reason everyone is dying. But no.

•I wish more time was spent showcasing Leila’s insecurities that resulted from having no parental figure that cared for her.

•How characters behaved, and responded to things felt unrealistic at times, like Tobias’s reaction when Milo died (who’s alive?).

—

What did I like about this book?

•Pippa.

•The author did a good job at making me dislike Cosima. I wish she spent more time with her character, and her backstory. She’s interesting.

•It’s not completely boring. I don’t hate this book. It just fell flat.

—

I just want to end this by saying I love Jenna, and her videos. I love TSC, and I plan on giving this series another chance. This book just fell flat.

I recommend you give it a try. You might like it a lot more than I did.

That’s all I have to say. Have a good day, and thank you for reading this review.

[tappkalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book objectively 4 stars? : Maybe not.
Did I need to read the same story again from a different point of view? : I mean, it was just as different as it was similar, and I'm almost in love with Leila, so no regrets on my part.

This is probably what others would call guilty pleasure, except I'm really not guilty over it. It gives me so much joy, I love the characters, the main relationship (which is healthy btw), and the story is memorable. I still vividly remember the first book two years later.

Can't wait for the next in the series. Based on how it ended, I hope we'll get a gathering of the sisterhood in the focus.

----------------------------------------------

Have you ever read about a character who would totally be the love of your life if they were real and then you get to see the story through their eyes?
Because that's totally happening to me right now.

Art by @odettaeabach

[AlzarinCrimson · Rating 1 out of 5]

!!!Fair warning: Lots of spoilers!!!

Where to begin?

Actually, let’s start with things that I did like about this companion novel:

- I liked the scene towards the beginning where Leila visited Talos in the dungeon and they had a chill chat.

That’s it.

So, as with the first book, the problem of one dimensional characters carries on into this one. All the men are idiot pigs who make Leila’s life hell; except Tobias. Tobias was even more flat in this than TSC. It is utterly comical how stereotyped the male characters are. Brontes is a moustache twirling villain with lines that made me bust up laughing. “Leila, you vulgar sh*t!” I’m sorry, who would actually say that?? It’s line after line just like this. It’s like all of the men are supposed to be the worst ever to make Tobias seem better than he is. I just do not buy it. I have all of the same complaints from last time in regards to “representation”. We got to see front and center, again, that Kaleo (a bi/pan man; the only one in the book) is a sadistic rapist. Woohoo. That is toootally not an overused stereotype.

Another thing is characters repeating themselves unnecessarily. The phrase “He moves against me” (in a conspiring sense) was used beyond excess. It got old way fast, as did the myriad of conversations that should have been axed. The dialogue in many parts was comical where I don’t think it was intended to be. We get it, the tournament is vile, everyone’s eyes except Tobias’ are closed, Brontes is conspiring. There was so much unnecessary dialogue.

Honestly, Pippa’s character is at least a little offensive. She has a developmental delay of some sort (which was also talked about a little in TSC), but all it does is make her speak like a 5 year old and be Leila’s endlessly loyal pet. Leila even refers to her as “my duckling”. It’s cringe.

I also realized something in regards to Leila acting as a healer in the Labyrinth. She does not want the men to know she is the Savior, okay cool. Therefore, she uses perfume/mud/etc. to pretend that it is the concoctions that heal instead of her own magic. Okay… But, it is known to the men that the Savior has the ability to share her gifts, as demonstrated by Pippa. So, why could Leila have not simply said she was appointed as healer and granted the power for the duration of the tournament? It would have been believable especially since people outside of the palace are taught that the Savior is a supremely powerful being who has the ability to end war, famine, and plague. It would make sense that the Savior is both powerful and benevolent enough to share her healing magic for a set period of time. I’m just saying, that could have easily been put in.

I can’t remember exactly where it was in the book, but Brontes mentioned the new Vault Keeper was a “proven warrior on the battlefield”, something to that effect. Uh… Doesn’t the Savior prevent war? What battlefield exactly was this on then? Unless Brontes just let slip something he’s been working on to Leila’s face, which she did not catch. But later, she herself even says there have been no wars in centuries.

Leila was so annoying this time around, much more so than in TSC. The parts where she was supposed to “badass” did not come across as such. She has some weird moral high ground and judges people for inane things. I don’t get the hate thrown at Cosima by Leila and Delphi when it comes to her playing the role of the Savior and enjoying the company of the competitors? Is that not what she was asked to do? So what, she enjoyed sleeping with some of the men? I really feel like there is some type of the Madonna/wh*re complex going on here, it’s bizarre. Delphi also has sex with people she is attracted to, just like Cosima. I get it, Cosima is also "moving against" Leila or whatever so that makes all the hate make sense in the end. Also Leila is always correcting people and spends a huge chunk of her time around other people being shocked.
“It’s not polite to make fun of people for their shapes and sizes.”
“You let a grieving man drink to excess?”
It was all so out of place. Don’t even get me started on how she beat Qar in a swordfight and all that emphasis on how “teeny tiny” she is.

Anyways, I’ll bring this to a close. Cartoonish villains, flat characters, dry plot. There was no reason that the excess filler in TSC and the excess filler in this book could not be omitted to combine the split perspective of Leila and Tobias.

[Samantha Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

Link to my YouTube review:

https://youtu.be/uOzE7fh7h9Q

This review is mostly for those who are on the fence about getting this book.

I read The Saviors Champion a while back and, while I only gave it two stars, I was still entertained and I enjoyed some of the tournament. I picked up The Savior's Sister this time because I wanted to see how the two viewpoints compared and if the writing improved, especially with this being the companion novel.

Unfortunately, I had to give this a 1 star. While, I was hoping to see more, the problems or inconsistencies that needed to be fixed in the first book, were either not fixed or done worse in this book. I was disappointed as a reader.

Characters:
In TSC Tobias and Leila were written in a one dimensional way, very much Gary Stu and Mary Sue, and while I can understand that it can sometimes be more difficult to make main characters well rounded, it is something that absolutely needs to happen to carry a story. I need more internal and external struggle, emotions, and dialogue, the way a character moves, the choices they make based on fears, hopes and goals. It all has to fit together and it all has to make sense and be realistic enough that the reader can say, "Yes, absolutely! I maybe wouldn't have made the same decision, but I for sure understand why that particular character made that decision."

There were also way too many secondary characters that weren't well rounded and built up for me to care about them. As a reader, it only makes sense to me to have a character in a book if they serve a very distinct purpose of either moving the plot forward or building on another character.

Worldbuilding & Magic System:

When a new type of place is written that the reader knows nothing about, there are so many details that need to be answered. What do people eat? How does the entire political system work? How does time work? Do they have a particular language? I really wish that this book answered a lot more questions about the world well, so that I could clearly picture in my head what this place looks like, and how everything works.

One thing I will say about world building is that it is a lofty mountain to climb and I admire those who choose to go the world building route, but this is often something that will take people years and years to solidify, especially in an adult fantasy.

The magic system is the same way. Too many unanswered questions in the book, too many inconsistencies that needed to be fixed.

Plot:

The problem with this book is that it relied too much on the stronger plot line of the first book The Savior's Champion. While I understand this is a companion novel I felt that most of the new scenes, especially the senator meeting scenes were unnecessary. Many scenes, if cut out, wouldn't have effected the book in my opinion. I think that a few of the scenes could've been moved to The Savior's Champion, and then a few scenes cut from the Savior's Champion and it could've been a better story as just one book.

Awkward Dialogue:

I'm going to have to be honest, the dialogue was rough, clunkier than The Savior's Champion. One minute they sounded very regal and formal and then the next it was like teenagers. It was very frustrating as a reader to get dialogue that was so inconsistent and not realistic.

Yes, this is a different world, so we are relying on the author to show us how people speak, but it has to be consistent and there has to be some realism to it. While some characters like Cosima had a distinct voice, there were many that did not and every character has to have one.

Adult Fiction vs YA:

This one was difficult. While it has swear words and killing, and some sex scenes this book read as a Young Adult even more than The Savior's Champion did. The writing was simpler, the issues were not that complex, there was absolutely instant romance that you see in many YA novels.

When it comes to adult novels the issues and the characters are usually more complex and fleshed out. The sex scenes themselves aren't as watered down as this book is, and the overall terms and writing style is more geared to adults. Unfortunately, the book was just not all the way there when it came to an adult novel.

Final Verdict:

Again, this review is for people who are still on the fence about buying the book. I think at the end of the day it's up to you, but I don't think that you're going to get the same quality of story that you got in The Savior's Champion.

With that being said, I do love to see writers grow and get even better. This story had awesome potential and I hope that in the future it really improves as this series progresses.

[Alexandria Russell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Going to keep this to the point because I’m so angry about this book. I have no pros. I loved TSC, gave it a 4.5, but this was just awful.

1. Leila was unbearable in this. She was a crybaby, wannabe badass who was either annoyingly stubborn or emotionally fragile and pathetic (i.e. her attitude with Romulus where she was mega bitch then her being a pissy crybaby when Tobias said he “hates the savior”, referring to Cosima but Leila takes it personally). In TSC she was mysterious, badass, and loving. In this, she was pathetic and annoying.

2. Every scene of this book could be summed up as “Leila kills someone, her life is hard :(”. Every single scene. It was just endless scenes of some random bathhouse girl doing some random shit, Leila going off to kill some random guard or senator, Brontes being an angry boy, Delphi being a lesbian, and Tobias being a swooning idiot. There were so many useless characters introduced (and each one got a nice generic “here’s their hair, eye, and skin color” description).

3. Wtf is this magic system? How has Leila known how to shadow walk since she was a child but hasn’t mastered it yet? How is Leila supposedly the most powerful being in the WORLD yet she can’t kill Brontes directly? How does it make sense that he has allies at all when Leila supposedly has all the power? It just doesn’t make sense. Even after Leila is killed like Brontes wants, the land will go to shit, all of it. They’ll all die quickly and he has no “power” to repair it. He won’t live either. Wtf was the point of his plan? How was he able to find a single person who thought his idea was even remotely good? The whole premise doesn’t make any sense on Leila’s end.

4. BRONTES FUCKING COSIMA? SERIOUSLY?! Why the fuck did that idea come into Jenna’s mind and she thought “yeah, that’ll get the point across”. GIRL. I understood Cosima was a ‘double agent’ deal LONG ago. This was so gross and unnecessary.

5. “Headed” was pretty much the only verb she used and it drove me nuts. Everyone was always “headed” somewhere and she almost never used it correctly. It just sounded wrong every single time.

6. How was Tobias the ONLY one to not know Leila was the savior when everyone else seemed to know? Is he seriously that dense? She did such a bad job of hiding it in this book compared to TSC.

7. MY BIGGEST CRIQUE: 35% of this book was literally copied and pasted from TSC. I get that it’s the same story from Leila’s POV, but NONE of the scenes are different? It’s just PAGES of the same dialog I’d already read. This book wouldn’t work as a stand-alone because we know so little about the tournament and the world like we learned in TSC, but it’s even worse as a companion. It’s awful. Midnight Sun was better than this.

EXTRA: I can’t stand authors who just toy around with the Amazon lists and claim to be best sellers. You only need to sell a certain amount of copies (I think less than 100) in like an hour in your super niche category and you’re labeled a top-seller. It’s a bunch of crap and makes her look like a shoddy car salesman of an author.

Overall, hated this book. What a disappointment.

[Emily Luebke · Rating 1 out of 5]

A plot with so many holes it might as well be damp tissue paper.
Characters who are flat, homicidal, and idiotic.
Plot points that just happen because "don't ask questions".
A rehash of a story that did not need a rehash.

Even fans shouldn't waste their time with this book. It's too many pages of mediocre fanfic.

Want to watch me dissect it? Check out my read-along: https://youtu.be/13bkJiOXCFU

[Sarah Matthews · Rating 1 out of 5]

You don't need to read this book to continue on with the story. You learn nothing new, except that the main character is a psycho.

[July · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2-2.5 stars.

I actually finished this yesterday but I was thinking about whether to give this 2 or 2.5 stars. But since I rated TSC 4 stars (3.5 rounded up), it felt wrong to give this a 2.5-rounded up to-3. These books do not have a 1 star difference for me.
Disclaimer of sorts: some of my criticisms come down to taste, I know that. That's why this book still has 2.5 stars. (Also welcome to book reviews.)

Another reviewer said it well: "this book fell flat for me."


*Warning*
I won't be marking this as a spoiler because what I'm mentioning is very vague - no naming of characters or specific events that weren't already in TSC. However, I will be mentioning "summarised overviews" of parts of the story (like arcs). So if you want to be completely spoiler-free, avoid this review.

Also I won't be bothering with the whole capitalisation of pronouns where Leila's concerned.


So...where to start.

What I liked:

- the idea. a companion novel is an interesting way to approach a series - I don't think I've ever read one.
- some characters felt very distinct and had strong voices or were simply interesting to read; Pippa, Cosima, Mousumi, Delphi in parts. I still really liked Orion (there were two good moments I enjoyed a lot), but that was residue from TSC.
- the romance, in part. I liked how consent played an important role.
- the magic, in part.
- the aesthetic, in part.
- some moments had some actual nice emotional resonance. (won't be mentioning for spoiler reasons.)



Now the lengthy part: why 2 stars?

- the world building felt really shallow to me. In one of his lectures, Brandon Sanderson mentions the idea of an iceberg - while you don't have to actually worldbuild everything that's submerged under the water (the things the reader doesn't see), it makes the world feel bigger and fuller if the reader at least thinks that there's something there. I did *not* get that feeling here at all. While that was fine in TSC due to the limiting circumstances of the labyrinth, Tobias' newness to this part of the world and his lower station (and, presumably, lack of education in comparison to Leila), and other factors, TSS did not have these excuses. Leila is The Savior. She might be kept in the palace, but she probably has access to the greatest wealth of knowledge in Thessen, so she should possess some cultural literacy. The palace is the centre for everything glamorous and luxurious, but despite the vague ancient grecoroman aesthetic, everything felt quite generic. No mention of specific foods, imported fabrics, culture-specific sayings... There are characters from two other cultures and their descriptions are mostly reduced to ~typical traits of their people. There are worldbuilding holes as well, like one character being described as the greatest warrior on the battlefield (basically his defining characteristic) and no one batting an eye, even though it's stated that Thessen has been at peace for centuries. If this was intended, some sort of reaction or explanation would have been nice.


- the magic: this soft magic system worked much better in TSC because we didn't get to see inside the single character who has it. yes, this power is nice, but it soon loses its appeal because leila keeps using the same 3 tricks for the same purposes, and it has no limitations. okay, well. it has limitations in the sense that there are only specific tricks she can do (there's even an in-text joke about that, wink wink), but within those tricks, she can basically do anything, even bestow it upon other people. Everything always works. One pretty massive trick gets mentioned at one point with no build-up and then never plays a role again. And it has *no cost*. That's not a satisfying magic system. It worked way better with the mystery intact.


- the characters:
• Leila. oh my god Leila. All the appeal she might have had in TSC was gone for me. There just wasn't enough character development or inner monologue or much that had to do with her emotional arc, especially in her scenes with Tobias that we'd seen before. We mostly get a few body movements and dialogue. Even now, I'm confused as to what that arc was exactly. When her inner workings were a mystery and we saw them through Tobias, she appeared passionate, defiant, troubled, badass. Now that we see her motives and what occupies her thoughts ... ho boy. She read as an immature, unstable, selfish brat half the time. She was riled up by the weirdest things. Her insecurities concerned the most superficial things and felt completely disconnected from her actual problems, the ones she claimed to care about. (No, I absolutely don't mind that her thoughts were occupied by Tobias a lot, I guess that's how horny allosexuals work. It's the rest that bugged me.) Her narrative voice didn't match her dialogue. As badass as she was supposed to be, I didn't really get much of that - most of the time she's in trouble, either she always has the same solution and it always works (usually murder) or she's saved by someone else. Nothing wrong with being saved - she does plenty of saving herself (thanks to her power mostly) - but never once did I have the feeling of her using her wits or smarts or emotional intelligence to get out of a situation. There are a few situations when she manipulates Brontes, but tbh he comes off as a one-dimensional comic book villain so that's not much of a feat.
I felt like Leila very much read like one of the weaker YA heroines, à la Red Queen, Throne of Glass, etc. Lots of talking about how awesome she is but no fire behind the smoke.

• there were too many too similar characters. The Senators should have been cut down to fewer. While I enjoyed the servants because yay women, most of them had really small parts and were introduced all at once. Most were also reduced to one character trait.

• Brontes...man. Same problem as with Leila: lots of talking about how he's this super dangerous villain and oh my god he is so bad and so dangerous and he has been politically maneuvering for 20 years and set up this masterplan and have I mentioned that he's dangerous, but what we see is just a petty arsehole with a short fuse who is so one-dimensional he might as well be twirling his mustache.

• Tobias was...I mean, we know him from TSC, but he felt really underdeveloped in this. Not sure if this is how it's supposed to be in a companion novel, but here we are.


- the romance. Very instalove. I feel like Tobias' emotional response to Leila in TSC was much more explored, making the romance more believable; but this emotional exploration was lacking in Leila's POV in general, which made the whole romance feel very YA - super high involvement with high risks taken for one another but for, like...no reason. Little development. Also, the intensity Leila's jealousy was tiring, given all the other shit that was going on. But honestly, the romance was far from my biggest issue in this book.


- plot: there are so many small things I have issues with but in order to avoid specific spoilers, I'll break them down into categories.

• so many things happen and so few of them are of actual consequence. It would have made for a stronger story to combine several similar plot points into just one or two and make their impact stronger. Not only did they not really contribute to the plot in a significant way, they usually didn't even have an emotional impact. A lot of it felt repetitive, especially when it involved characters who were so indistinctive from certain others that I'd already forgotten who they were.
Sometimes something would happen - once or twice enough to be the heavy point upon which to end a chapter - and then...nothing. No mention of it ever again.

• the scheming felt so...basic and stupid. I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence, but many of those methods were downright child detective story level. Both Leila and Brontes have been working at this for years and this is all they've got?

• oh my god the villain monologue revealing the entire master plan without that villain actually having a reason to do so. This whole trope needs to die in pain, please.

• most importantly (sort of a culmination of the above): I don't have the feeling I got anything new from this book aside from a bit of info on Leila's magic and one or two plot points which might have been mentioned in TSC or revealed at the start of the next book. I suppose a few of the characters might play a role in book 3, but there could have been a way to introduce them some other way, I'm sure.
Most of the characterisations and motives could be guessed at in TSC already. For me, the hints in TSC made for a more coherent and more intriguing picture than what we got in TSS. The suggestions didn't pay off, I suppose.

I understand that combining these two POVs into one book would have rendered the plot twist at the end of TSC impossible - but there could have been another one. The Savior reveal could have been an emotional gut punch for Tobias' POV instead (and since we breeze through this scene in TSS, we wouldn't miss much from Leila's POV). The need to make Leila's story last the length of the tournament without skimming through parts because plot points from TSC need to be addressed, in combination with the weakness of the political plot (pun intended), really made this companion novel drag on and repeat itself. The fact that the reader already knows the end does not help matters at all - really takes the last of the air out of the suspense balloon.

But to be honest, while a dual POV in TSC might have worked, I think this series would have been best served by a novella from Leila's POV instead - maybe even from a while before the tournament. We could see her magic and understand that it's real, and that it's actually important for the realm. And maybe how she begins to set the pieces of her own scheme; possibly show the time killed her first Senator? The emotional impact of something like that, her first truly setting foot on a path toward darkness, would have been more intriguing for me than the book we got.



Anyways. Long story short: this might be the right book for someone. It was not for me. Again, quoting a fellow reviewer: it fell flat for me.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER: This is a rant review, so very long, not that informative and not helpful for when you’re still thinking about whether or not to buy the book.

First off: I did not particularly like TSC. It was way better than Eve the Awakening, but by my standards, still not a good book. I gave it three stars because while it was way too long and I didn’t particularly like it, the plot itself was good, it had many great ideas, and it was overall kind of entertaining.
I decided to read TSS, because I quite frankly like reading things that kind of piss me off. And this did piss me off, and I like complaining, so here goes.
Overall, this book doesn’t reach the standard set by TSC. The story is much less intriguing, the main character to me is not likeable at all, the romance felt boring, and it was all a little too dramatic and lacked emotional depth. Let me elaborate:

THE PLOT
We know exactly what happens in TSC, and large parts of TSS are just the exact same interactions between Leila and Tobias. This was okay for me, because I read TSC a long time ago, but I don’t know how it would hold up if you read them back to back, I imagine it would be pretty tedious to get through.
The first chapter kind of already set the tone for me: finding out that your own father wants you dead did not have the impact it should have had. It read like “we all know this will happen, let’s get it out of the way”, like many, many other things to come.
We knew the switch was going to happen, and in the beginning, I thought it was kind of exciting. They wouldn’t be found out of course, but how would they manage? It seemed impossible to pull off. I was at the edge of my seat to be honest. And then things like Brontes just conveniently not watching the tournament happened, and I did not feel anxious for them to be discovered ever again. It was NOT tricky to pull off, it got boring fast. So it felt like a companion novel every step of the way: it had to follow the events of TSC, and they could not be found out, even if that did not fit the tone of the story. There was very little work put in to make it feel organic. It was supposed to be this grand scheme, yet often, it was just a matter of pure chance and boring blackmail, “if you say something, I stab you”. That’s just not the cunning and complicated political plot I was promised. Even in TSC I wondered “Huh, how did nobody know Leila was in the Labyrinth?”, and instead of explaining how she did it in an interesting way, this novel makes it seem even more outlandish and almost comical how the switch and her visits to Tobias go unnoticed. And for something so incredibly high stakes – as Leila points out over and over again, “I am to be killed” – it felt incredibly careless and lazily written. I did not buy the danger she’s in, at all.
And then, after Brontes finally finds out about the switch, everyone wonders why he’s going along with it?! I understood it the literal second I read it, and I couldn’t believe that Leila never realized and had to be told by her father’s ally. She’s supposed to be this smart, cunning individual, but the thought that now her father can kill her without anyone outside the palace ever knowing never crossed her mind?? What??

I also didn’t care for the romance. I have to agree that it’s kind of insta-love-y. I especially feel like Leila does very little to deserve Tobias’ very lovey dovey treatment, maybe that’s just my skewed memory of things though because I just really didn’t like her. There’s too much (forced?) miscommunication, or non-communication between them. I get the “I want to tell him but I can’t”-thing, but it happened so often that I just wanted to roll my eyes and tell her to get her shit together, it lost all impact. Their love is overly dramatic to me, all this “you are everything” and “my darling” when at points I felt like “uh, do you guys even still get along…?”. It was like those couples in high school that have been together for 2 weeks and promise each other eternal love, but actually just fight all the time. I do buy the lust, the flirtation, but I feel like it's a romance that burns bright and burns out quickly. I don't feel like these are characters that would stay together for long. Their relationship didn’t flow organically, especially when someone was mad. They just completely lost me when all this “I should tell him I’m the Savior”-thing started, and I didn’t really get behind the way they broke up or got together again, it didn’t make sense to me.

In general, I just think this novel’s emotional tone is off, or at least underwhelming. It is, honestly, a much bigger and impactful story than this book makes it out to be. A holy queen who’s the only thing keeping her country and people alive, never knew her mother, hated by her father, unable to trust anyone? That’s a great story. Yet it never had the emotional impact it could have had, instead it just felt like a shallow teen romance drama.

LEILA
It took me a while to realize and another while to realize why, but I really, really did not like Leila. She was mean, condescending, jealous, messy. She was reactive, didn’t really plan more than a minute ahead.
She had an advantage that she never seemed to take advantage of; she knew what her father was planning, yet she never managed to recruit people? Sure, maybe she didn’t have the coin, maybe her father was quicker or more influential than her, but she was The Savior after all, could she not use that to her benefit in any way whatsoever? Start a drought? Damn, would that not have solved the problem of Brontes not believing in her importance in the first place?? Hell, maybe she could even have poisoned some people and then presented herself as the only saving grace with her healing powers, now that would be truly shady, but what do I know, I’m not in her situation so CLEARLY I know NOTHING. I am not sure if this condescending vibe I got from Leila is maybe a remnant of Jenna herself, who (understandably so) got very annoyed when readers continuously asked questions like “why not just kill Brontes”. That would be too easy, duh, think!! Yet all Leila’s methods are just that, incredibly easy and superficial. Is her plan just to endlessly kill all the new people Brontes recruits? If so, could she not just… kill Brontes? Does it not weigh on her to kill all these people just to protect herself, without ever getting rid of the real problem which was just her father? Isn’t that a big reveal near the end of the book, that it’s kind of just Brontes who wants complete world domination? Or did I miss something??

In general, I was just questioning her overall competence. Sometimes “someone is trying to kill me” felt like an excuse to dismiss someone else, but I just don’t buy that she’s that serious about it judging by how chaotic her methods were. I'm not mad that she was so distracted by Tobias, that's completely fine to me. Crushes are confusing and take up all of your brain power. But all the other things? The most problematic thing to me was that Leila was insanely critical of Cosima, yet every time I read a scene where Cosima takes on the role of the Savior, I was relieved by how well she played the part. She was exactly what Leila needed to make her plan go unnoticed, yet all she does is react with rage and jealousy. How was the arena battle supposed to work out if Cosima wasn’t allowed to speak? Leila is upset that she went against her rules, but seriously, what was supposed to happen? Was Wembleton supposed to just ignore the situation? Leila’s life is literally on the line, yet there seemed to be no plan or foresight at all and she acts like a jealous teenager instead. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with her being unexpectedly upset by what her sister says and does and finding herself jealous of someone else taking her rightful place. That would be good internal conflict!! But there wasn’t any. There was never an ounce of self-reflection, of “maybe I’m being unreasonable, this is perfect for my plan, but why am I so jealous?”, but there isn’t. Instead, Cosima is just the villain, which to me makes Leila just a bit of a bitch.
Leila had lots of petty superficial problems, like her “nobody notices me”-complex in the Labyrinth when tons of men were clearly all over her. Sure, they were absolutely horrible, but this and complaining about how pretty Cosima is felt very shallow. It comes across like she seems to have a huge problem with not being the center of the attention she thinks she rightfully deserves. Most times this seemed more important than what I thought was supposed to be her biggest identity conflict, the fact that nobody sees her as a person, only as a glowing holy queen. It does not compute.
Also, “which leaves her wondering, is she taking after dear old dad?” should have been more of a plot point. That’s so important.
Overall I think Leila’s character in this novel was much worse than in TSC. I was hoping to get more insight into her plans, what’s happening in the palace, and the strings she’s pulling behind the scenes, instead I just realized she’s kind of a jealous mess. I like characters with flaws, but personally, I just found Leila to have very few actually likeable qualities apart from theoretically caring about the realm and disliking that people die in the tournament (but then murdering lots of people herself, but that’s okay because they’re evil, you know?? that's different), and having absolutely zero self-reflection.

OTHER CHARACTERS
Jenna’s character work has improved a lot after Eve, but I think the villains especially are still incredibly one-dimensional. The bitchy pretty girl Cosima, the crazy psychopath Kaleo, the power-hungry Brontes. None of them have much depth.
There were also so many servants. SO many. It wouldn’t have hurt to get rid of a few of them, it wouldn’t have hurt the plot either to merge some of them together.

THE MAGIC
I never fully understood Leila’s magic. In some situations she almost died, yet for some reason she couldn’t teleport. To this point I’m not sure if this was just convenience for the plot or if the rules weren’t laid out properly. I'd really love ANY explanation of why she doesn’t have the upper hand in literally every fight.
EDIT: In a question about this on instagram (it wasn't by me, I swear) Jenna says that Leila can't use the magic when her capacities are weakened. Which makes sense, but I feel like Jenna felt that it was obvious, stated it once very shortly (I remember Leila struggling to summon her magic once, with no further explanation) and then assumed everyone understood, so this is really more of a writing style problem. But it's not insignificant. I'd assume Leila would actually try shadow walking EVERY time, maybe fail, but the fact that she doesn't try at all is so weird to me. If you were struggling to free yourself from a chokehold once, would you just stop trying? If it could save your life, wouldn't you try harder? I feel like that's kind of a big failure on an author's side to brush over something so important that so many people will have questions on.
Also, do the effects of a blessing wear off? She had to bless Tobias again to teleport to his home (which she has never thought of before to leave the fortress... Were all her loyal servants born in the palace?)
And does it only rain when Leila cries? At this point I don’t even know which questions are dumb. I just have so many of them.

WRITING STYLE
As I mentioned before, there was a serious lack of emotional depth. For such a high stakes plot with such complicated relationships, the really heavy emotions were kind of not there. I would have liked this novel a lot more if it focused more on Leila’s internal conflicts, maybe then I would have understood her better. But the struggles and fears she had only existed relatively superficially, barely beyond someone furrowing their brows in anger or some shit.
And the sex scenes, or almost-sex scenes, were just cringy. So much focus on cocks. Calling Tobias’ dick “polished bronze” or “[unleashing] his beast”. Excuse me, but I can’t take this seriously.
A petty one: The capitalization of Leila’s pronouns was so hard to get into, and I still don’t understand it. She’s not a God.

PET PEEVES
My favorite section, where I just complain about small things that bothered the fuck out of me:
• “She dragged her fingers over the portraits” OH GOD NO, IT’S CHARCOAL, you'll smudge and destroy it!
• Pippa in the Labyrinth?? Excuse me?? Countless men were harassing Leila, yet she lets her immature sister go down there and wander about alone? That’s just reckless. Pippa “likes boys”, she trusts people. Sure Leila gave her the ability to shadow walk, but can she judge if a situation is dangerous? And even Leila can’t shadow walk in times where she’s really struggling. Am I missing something here? I would have liked to have this addressed in literally any way at all.
• I am unreasonably mad about the fact that their names have meanings. It’s a fantasy world, why do they know Latin and Hebrew? I mean sure, the names are not original, but at least pretend they are or something. I don’t know. I don’t care for name meanings in general but in this situation I find it even worse.
• Why does nobody ever talk about God? I thought the Savior is a blessing from God, why is the deity literally never brought up? Has the Savior’s lineage existed for so long that the people worship only her? But even that worship is gone already, remember “Tobias doesn’t care about the Savior”... I just don’t think that with such a tangible evidence of a God, he (she? They? What I would give to know) would fade from collective consciousness so quickly. Can I have a little worldbuilding, as a treat...
• I don’t vibe with the fact that the psychopathic serial killer rapist is bisexual, Delphi is a lesbian who sleeps with everyone, and Enzo’s love interest dies. Sure it’s representation, but at what cost. This could have been handled better.

CONCLUSION
This book, in its entirety, is just not that complex, clever, or well thought-through as Jenna presented it. I asked myself “Did I miss something or is this just badly plotted” so many times, and I still don’t know the answer. I think I am supposed to believe that Leila or Jenna considered every option, but the text doesn't say that, so I didn't believe it. Either that or Jenna has a serious problem with understanding what readers will and won't get, or will wonder about. I'm sorry, but all of her novels so far read like Jenna needs beta readers that are WAY more critical.
I just, in general, don’t think Jenna’s writing is that grown-up or smart. There's been some improvements, but I was hoping for more. This book, a supposed adult novel, apart from the cocks and stabbing, just isn’t very grown-up.

[Beatrice Castle · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 50%

Most of the book was a rehash of the previous one.
Characters were flat and one-dimensional. Protagonist was unlikeable (and not the good kind of unlikeable)
Villains were villains. Characters like Cosima or Romulus could have been interesting if not so under-developped.
A lot of inconsistencies ; how is Brontes not aware of the switch, considering his whole plan is to kill Leila? one would think she would be surveilled at all times. Speaking of that; how do none of the senators have any bodyguards, considering what important political figures they are and that they are being killed one by one? Why does everybody shrug the killings off? It is not like Leila is particularly careful not to be found out. And the fact that Delphi goes anywhere to clean up her mess unnoticed is, at the least, unbelievable. If Leila can teleport anywhere and kill the senators in their own room unnoticed, why doesn't she just kill Brontes? He doesn't seem to have any bodyguards around him either. Hell, it would only be a matter of poisoning his food while no one's looking. Killing him in his sleep. Also; everything is so easy for her to unravel: these senators are not making a big effort in hiding their plan. Why not make a file for the assassins?
The writing is okay for the most part. Some sentences and expressions pop way too often "apologies" "cocked his/her head"... And characters swear way too often for it to be realistic, especially for The Savior.
Most of the time rooms are not described except for the occasional onyx throne and bath.
Leila comes off as highly unlikeable, as she kills without blinking, even when it doesn't seem necessary (like killing all the senators instead of going for her father...), and feeling next to no remorse at all. She claims many times that this is not a democracy, and that only her should reign, but how is that better than her father, other than the fact she is "good" and he is evil?

Anyways.

Edit: I want to explain why Leila's "plan" (if you can call "killing everybody" a plan) doesn't work, and why "it's much more complicated than that" as an answer to "why don't you just kill your father?" doesn't make any sense.

There are spoilers.

When there is a rebellion, or an organization you want to bring down, do you kill the entire group or do you track the leader in order to stop him? Spoiler alert. You track the leader. He is the head of the movement; without him it might as well be a chicken running without its head. Sure, replacements can be found, but the truth is that there is much more to be gained in stopping the rebellion from the roots than tiring yourself plucking out bad herb. That is why most leaders try to stay, if possible, hidden. When you got him, you can THEN try to calculate how deep runs the corruption. Leila has two advantages: she knows who is the leader and she knows how deep the corruption runs (basically, her whole government is corrupted).
Another advantage is that apparently, the opinion of her people is very important. That is why Brontes makes such a plan to kill her without being blamed for it. That is why he plans to blame Kovahr for the whole thing (although, really, he goes through such lenghts to do this ...to convince who? His whole government follows him, so no need to convince them, and so he can easily claim it to the people without having to prove it since he's the sovereign...And the Kovahrians know they didn't do it, so are you trying to convinve THEM? Anyways). All of this means there is a chance of uprising if the people were to find out that this is indeed not true; they are loyal to the Savior. WHICH MEANS: If Leila were to kill Brontes, who is going to stop her? The people are with her. She is the only legitimate queen; are the senators going to stage a coup knowing that the people won't follow them? Also, once in power, it would be just so easy to exile them or imprison them (without needing to go stabby-stabby) and get more information. Also, killing her father would just avoid all the bloodshed of going into a civil war, something which she claims she doesn't like. So which is it?

All of this to say, Leila is not that smart. Really.

[Bree · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had so much hope for this book. I was so excited leading up the release, but I could not be more disappointed.

Nowhere did it say that this was a retelling of TSC. I specifically avoided reviews because I didn't want to see spoilers, but I think that should have been more clear. It is misleading to label it book 2 establishing expectations of a sequel.

***spoilers****

I rated THC 5 starts when I read it and it became one of my favorite books despite some flaws. This book however has actually ruined the first books for me as well.

The savior was so selfish, shallow, and one dimensional. Her whole motivation for not telling Tobias that she is the savior is because he says 'he hates the savior' when he is clearly referring to Cosima. Because of that she let's him go to his death in the arena without a blessing because she is throwing a tantrum.
At least in TSC it was ambiguous enough that I assumed Leila had some good reason for everything she did that would be explained later. Well, this book explained her every thought and her reasons were just as shallow and selfish as they appeared with nothing below the surface. She is mean and hurtful to all her friends which she thinks of as servants but yet the still loved her unconditionally, cause reasons I guess.

The sovereign was one of the worst villains I have ever read. In the first book I though he was a good B plot villain. Scary and in the background but he wasn't the main threat to Tobias (the tournament was.) The sovereign is a mustache twirling villain with no thought behind his actions. His entire motivation are just to hurt Leila because he is eeevil. He openly hates and undermines her but yet the people of the palace are shocked that he isn't this loving father. He goes out of his way to kill the artist even though there is no reason reason to other than to make Leila suffer. This is not the plans of a smart leader who (in my opinion) would be happy Leila is distracted making it easier to carry out his plans. How does killing the artist help him? And Im talking about earlier in the story when he wasn't a threat of actually winning, but simply someone leila liked. He only wanted to kill him for pleasure and to make leila suffer because eeevil. He had no depth and his plans were stupid and ill conceived (and no, that's not me saying I want a 3rd book from his point of view.)

Rereading the exact conversations from the first book was tedious and didn't add anything to the world.
The magic was inconsistent at best, and used mainly as a plot device.
The characters were inconsistent, especially leila, who claims to love Tobias but would then forget that there were even challenges happening until he came back to the palace covered in blood and disturbed.

There is more I could say about this book but over all it took things from the first book and over explained them into stupidity, retroactively distroying the actions and character motivation from the first book.

It would take a lot to get me to pick up book 3 considering every review on here seems to be paid for anyway. Very disappointed in a story and author I previously had a lot or respect for.

[Daniel Giron · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star -- would've given 1.5 but as I wrote this review I started realizing how bad this book actually was.

This review does contain slight spoilers for the beginning third of the novel, but no big twists. Also be prepared for some unorganization with some typos here and there.

qn = quick note
tl;dr at the end
————

So lets get the formalities down really quick, I LOVE the cover of the book, along with the synopsis. I was prepared to be a bit bored since this was essentially TSC, just from a different POV, meaning the same tournament, same characters, etc. I was also prepared to get through the sheer length of all 560 pages, hopefully learning more about Thessen along the way!

What I was not prepared for was the disappointment I got from what was essentially a book full of fluff—yes there was some new information here and there but a very unsatisfying amount so. There were many opportunities to take this book to an upper level, but none of them were taken.

I'll get to the main problem of this book, the lack of character depth. I think Leila was supposed to be this bad bitch who would do anything to survive. Instead, I got some random woman murdering people and also was a healer for the first 3/4ths of the book. During that last fourth she finally starts to take action, but the previous events were just so unsatisfying that it passed onto this last section.

Leila's character wasn't well developed, especially her emotions. She follows the personality type of hard on the outside, soft on the inside. While I don't mind this, it's written in a way where it only shows that hard sadness, with only little glimpses of happiness coming every few scenes. Even if it is really like that for Leila, mainly angry and sad, the writing style doesn't capitalize on those emotions and delve deep into their roots, causes, potential change, or the realization that she will always be angry/sad. All these branches to take a character arc, and none of them were taken, and it sucks since I really do want to like Leila.

The same thing goes for all the side characters such as her servant group(Faun, Nix, etc), the entire Senate(the government rulers;Wembleton, Romulous, etc), and other groups I likely forgot to mention. While I understand that side-characters shouldn't be developed as much since they won't be featured as often, it would be nice to have something.(qn: there is a glimmer of hope, Cosmina! One of the Savior's sisters, down a few paras from here)

Since I'm on the topic of characters, I'll go to Tobias and his & Leila's romance. I don't really have much to say about him. He's Tobias, a kind respectful man who's fighting for his family and has a big cock, I barely get to know about him.

(qn: I absolutely hate the amount of times the word "cock" is used. I get that it's better than something like "member" and that the characters are living in a different society so they might use different words, but once you hear/read it so many times it becomes weirdly distorted and uncomfy)

On the topic of romance, it was, like all these characters, underdeveloped. It was more of an insta-love type romance which isn't my personal tastes, but it's okay. There was still time to develop the romance itself, right? All the time used was just a waste of them talking about unimportant events that didn't add character and romance depth which was especially disappointing for Tobias since this was his only source of his development, at least in TSS.

Yes, he does have a whole book based on his POV, but I don't remember that. This leads into something else: how I hoped to refresh my memory on who Tobias was, how the tournament was doing, etc. Like every chapter there would be some scroll or whatever that said something like: "___ died because of ___. ___ won the challenge, expect his reward of ___ soon"

Instead we get the Proctor, Romulous, telling a somewhat informational two-sentence summary of the tournament for like 3 chapters until he just suddenly stops, likely due to plot.

Before I get onto other things, I wanna talk about Cosmia, the sister Leila trades her spot of Savior with. I loved her character, she had this distinct minipulative-royal like voice and I wished that the other characters had this distinction. She is like the perfect combination of a queen, being horny, and manipulation all at the same time and I just wish her backstory was more delved into.

Now, finally, to the plot. It was like so many things would happen, but nothing at the same time. Now to get a few things straight so nobody will be confused, I'll quickly explain what Leila does during the first maybe 3/4ths of the book(this is where the slight spoilers come in):

After learning that she is to die, Leila starts torturing and killing the Senators for information. She recruits Romulous and Wembleton and threatens their life to do some tasks, but overall they're not important. With that explained, lets go on.

Lets say Leila plans to torture a senator. First she wakes up and goes to a Senate meeting where she learns about unmeaningful information about trade, etc. Then she goes and does the deed and gets the information, and barely useful information at that, either vague or unneeded. As a "reward," Leila gets some alone time with Tobias which is also unhelpful in terms of romance and character development. While that's going on, Leila has all these thoughts about what she should do next, how she should go forward, etc, and while I get that path, it does tend to drag on due to other banter with side characters, This is what I mean, so many conversations and actions are happening, but at the end of the day, barely anything is given, say for a secret or rarely two.

I dealt with this for a long time until it just kept going and going and eventually got bored. The information was still so miniscule, I didn't feel any connection or romance between Tobias and Leila, and eventually, the only reason I was reading was because of the hope that it would get better.

It did get better. On chapter 33, The Culmination, 524 pages in the hardcover version of the book. It was also the second-to-last chapter, and quite possibly the only good one since it had drama, twists, good communication, and everything was simply perfect from these 20~ pages.

The thing is, that perfection came too late. 524 pages of trudging through unmeaningful filler, just to get 20 pages of goodness which would soon simply go away in the next(and last) chapter.

This kinda goes with plot, the writing. I liked it, it was engaging, but the content it was included in was boring. It was also descriptive, perhaps too descriptive, but other than that it was... fine. I honestly don't know what to say about this, it was just fine. Oh yeah - the dialogue was written weirdly. I don't know if it was because of word choice, but it constantly changed from 30 - 17 - 25 yrs old which gave me a bit of whiplash.

Now I wanna get into the worldbuilding. There doesn't seem to be any uniqueness from Thessen to somewhere like the U.S. They supposedly eat the same things, speak the same language, wear more-or-less the same clothes the main difference being the inclusion of magic. There is one other nation in particular, Khovaria. They have multiple different dialects, unsure on the food, but do wear different clothes, more focused on practicality than reality.

Now for my one last disappointment, the government. I hoped to learn more about the ins and outs of Thessen because Leila was constantly involved in Senate meetings talking about trade, financial, and other problems. The thing is, all of the information was so *boring*. There wasn't even a bit of drama to keep me interested in all of the boring stuff. This could've been to empathize that Thessen was a perfect nation, but my thoughts constantly moved to other topics like a different dark-fantasy romance novel I could've gotten instead of this one.

---

tl;dr - Promising plot but all contents disappointed me as it was essentially filler and a bridge for the third book. Perhaps a third of the book could be removed and it would be the same. Okay writing, weird dialogue but compensated with good description. Characters were VERY poorly developed(especially Leila), with no knowledge about any of them, along with no unique voices say for a few side characters. Poor romance too; insta-love and I felt no connection during any of their interactions. Poor worldbuilding too, Thessen didn't feel unique and barely anything is learned about it here.

I would strongly recommend not getting this book unless you wanna give Moreci a kind of thanks for giving writing advice, but even so there's still her Patreon and merch store, but in the end it's up to you if you follow a bad or good review.
---

(Unrelated) I'll probably still get TSA(which I'm like 99% sure is The Saviors Assassin) since Leila and Tobias will *FINALLY* get into more of the world (mostly) alone. This means so many more chances to develop characters, romance, and worldbuilding. If this book somehow flops, then all hope for this series is just completely gone for me.

[Gina Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

WARNING - This review contains TSC and TSS spoilers. Please don't read if you haven't at least read TSC.

After TSC, I had very high expectations for this book - I loved TSC once I got into it, partly because of Tobias but also because Leila was the type of strong woman I like to see. However, this book was a let-down.

As a companion novel, it follows the very same storyline - I knew this before I bought it so that didn't bother me as such. I also knew this book was from Leila's POV so I was expecting to see a lot more of the scheming and politics that are associated with her position at court.

What I didn't expect was for every single scene between Tobias and Leila to be repeated in TSS. Now, this wouldn't have been so bad if we were getting a big insight into Leila's thoughts and feelings, but most of the time it was the exact same passages copied over with minimal changes to reflect Leila's POV instead. In other words, it was a total waste of words and space - I had already read the scene and reading it again for no true advantage felt like a waste - a way to fill out the book with meaningless stuff rather than use those precious words for more gritty scenes.

There were some major issues with this book for me aside from the repetition.

The first was the prologue. Caution - spoiler ahead: Leila is a child - it's unclear how young she is, but a child and this is when she first discovers that her father is plotting to kill and her and is responsible for the death of her mother and Delphi's mother. It just had me thinking 'What has Leila been doing for all these years? Why hasn't there been an attempt on her life before? Is there really no way that Brontes could have killed her as a small child? He almost kills her several times when she's 20 and that's when she's been training for an age . I get that without her reaching her 20th birthday there is no storyline but it would just have been more realistic for me if Brontes developed a taste for the throne over the years he was Sovereign and decided he didn't want to relinquish it to the winner of the Sovereign's Tournament. That way Leila would have been much more mature and could have been seeing this greed in him gradually. It would also solve the issue of exactly why some small child couldn't have happened upon a fatal incident.

Second, the magic. I'm a huge magic fan - I love fantasy for the worlds and the systems people create and magic is a big part of that. This felt massively under-developed and under-explained. It seems Leila can do pretty much anything she wants to except when that causes a plot point issue and then suddenly she can't do that thing because of ambiguous rules. Also, what the heck is going on with the shadow-darkness thing below the soil? Why can she see dead people in mirrors? Why is a shadow-walking a thing that she can do but evidently her mother couldn't? None of this is really explained and it's a shame because the magic was one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

Third and arguably the biggest problem: Leila. Tobias was hilarious throughout TSC, his POV and the writing style were amusing. Everything was just amusing. In TSC Leila came across as a smart, savvy badass who could take care of herself most of the time. She came across as someone who played a very clever game and played it well. I loved Leila in TSC...
Leila in TSS is an idiot.
She blusters around making mistake after mistake, somehow thinking that killing each senate member one by one after evidently doing nothing for years will solve her problems? This big clever game that I believed she played in TSC to pass herself off as the healer... yeah that was a last-minute decision hastily shot together with no real purpose . It turns out all she wanted was to find out who her father's assassins were... she simply could have waited for the three blessed ones to be named and bam, assassins are known. But noooo she had to go through some huge deception to "get to know them" when she then preceded to spend absolutely no time with them at all . I would have preferred it if this plan of hers had been carefully crafted for years or even months - something she even trained Cosima for, knowing it was coming. It would have been more believable for it to go so well that way.
One of her powers is that she can sense emotions through the colours that people throw off - kind of like an aura I guess? . Yet this turned on and off through the story. Sometimes she can use it to see if people are betraying her but spends the entire novel trying to find this secret traitor the whole time... This actually makes her accusation of Tobias as being the third assassin - for reasons I now don't understand, but made perfect sense in TSC - even more absurd as she could see his black cloud of misery if only she looked for it.
Finally, just her. She went from being someone who was clever, who had to kill to protect herself, to being someone who was cruel at best. She lacked remorse - or any emotion really - for what she did, for the deaths she caused: they had no impact on her whatsoever. With Tobias, in TSC, we experienced his emotions as he killed, we saw how this impacted his character and this was done incredibly. We could actually see him breaking. Here there was no such thing. Leila just went around with her little dagger slicing men open with not a care in the world. Which, by the way - a tiny little girl (she's often referenced as being small) - against men who are described as seasoned warriors, much bigger and fitter than she is - and yet she comes out on top each time? No, I don't believe it.
Not to mention her insecurity! Every time Tobias says he hates the Savior she crumbles on the inside - never thinking in her little brain that he means Cosima because that's who she's told him is the Savior! . I honestly wanted to shake her. Get a damn grip woman, if you want him to stop calling the Savior then tell him the sodding truth. Idiot.

Fourth major issue with this book: politics. The Senate is set up and Leila for some reason needs to attend these meetings. This was a good way to put in the political games in a GOT-style battle for power.... But no. Missed opportunity there, these 'games' were non-existent and Leila daydreamed through most of the meetings thinking about other stuff - usually who she's gutting next. They were utterly pointless which is a shame as this dirty politics and the mind-games were what I was expecting. Although in fairness, given how much of a dingbat Leila is half the time she probably wouldn't have been able to play these games anyway.

Final major issue: Brontes. He held the tournament, goes along with the switch, for some reason allows Leila to keep killing his Senate all for some big bad plan which doesn't come to anything in the end... Why? What purpose? Perhaps we'll get these answers in the next instalment but currently I'm left with Tobias (who remains awesome), an idiot and a cartoon villain.

Now for what I liked about this book:
Tobias
Delphi
Talos
These were all great characters who are a lot smarter than Leila. They are loyal and strong, multi-dimensional and generally just really well developed.

It was interesting to see some of the additions that were made to the Tobias-Leila scenes we saw in TSC. These weren't there all the time, but it was nice to have more.

And that's generally it. I didn't hate the book, but I was disappointed by it. Perhaps I was expecting something completely different, but it just felt like it was all built up to be some cunning plan and then to find it it was just pot-luck and bad-planning was a big let down. Leila remains to be a huge disappointment to me, I want the strong smart woman from TSC to come back, not this grumpy, intolerable dumbass who I am supposed to believe has escaped death pretty much single-handedly since her childhood? It could have been so much smaller without all the scenes repeated as most of the time they gave no additional value.

Note: I remain in love with TSC - Tobias is the man we all need. And I adore Jenna Moreci. I was just very disappointed but that could be because I was expecting an apple and got an orange. Don't expect dirty politics and smart plans and you'll probably like it.

[Succinct Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Good:

- I still enjoyed Leila and Tobias’ banter, even if it seemed a bit saccharine at times
- Orion got the resolution he deserved. You go, Orion!
- Very fast read, barely an inconvenience!
- Talos seemed cool
- That’s it.

The Bad:

The Plot

I went into this book hoping to learn more about what was going on behind the scenes during TSC; I did not like what I learned. I expected conspiracy, but got clownery. Instead of political intrigue, I got contrived nonsense.

I had to set the book down for a moment after finally reaching the big revelation. It was just too stupid. I sat for a long moment, trying to convince myself to keep reading, because surely there was more to it.

There was not.

The Characters

Many of Leila’s decisions made no sense to me; I expected her to be more nuanced, but she defaulted to solving all of her problems with violence, usually in unbelievable ways. She overpowered competent fighters multiple times in a variety of situations, relying almost solely on her shadow-walking, which, while it did admittedly give her a tactical advantage, wouldn’t have aided her against the brute strength of significantly stronger adversaries.

Moreover, she was extremely volatile, which caused multiple misunderstandings, which in turn resulted in ridiculous plot contrivances. In TSC, Leila came across as one of the more well-balanced characters (until the obligatory romance drama at the end); TSS proved that she was one of the least balanced characters all along. Every chapter was another demonstration of her ineptitude. She is Mare Barrow 2.0—except instead of a whiny Pikachu, Leila is an inept Nightcrawler.

None of the new characters stood out to me except Talos, who seems to have an interesting backstory. 11/10 would read more about him. Meanwhile, all of the characters previously introduced in TSC somehow became less compelling. Leila’s interactions with Raphael made both characters seem less likable; the same goes for Enzo. The one-dimensional villains—Kaleo, Drake, Wembleton, and Brontes—remained bland and irredeemable, without even the hint of a backstory. Very disappointing.

Romulus had potential, but alas, he too was wasted. Literally.

I’d be hard pressed to identify any of the female side characters besides Cosima and Delphi, and even those two were trite and vapid. At first, I thought there might be more to Cosima, but no, she was apparently just another one-dimensional villain all along. The author doesn’t even explain why she acts the way she does. It’s infuriating.

Flynn is still my favorite character.

The Writing

Once again, the author seems intent on normalizing vulgarity. Every single character swore incessantly, with the exception of the laughably foppish page boy. I could believe that the Sovereign, as someone who wasn’t born into the nobility, would speak like a commoner, but there’s no way every single person in the palace would. It’s distracting and utterly inane. There’s a point where Brontes calls his daughter a vulgar shit, and I had to laugh at the unnecessary qualifier. They’re all vulgar shits, Brontes. Except Hylas, for some reason. Perhaps it’s a byproduct of his sexual orientation; Zander and Enzo were also comparatively well-spoken in TSC. Not sure what message the author is going for there.

Several scenes between Leila and the competitors seemed like they were copy-pasted from TSC (I skipped the entire chapter where Leila and Flynn teach Tobias how to fight), which sometimes ruined the pacing of the story.

Please, stop capitalizing the Savior’s pronouns. It’s so annoying to read.

The author’s simple, straightforward prose lends itself well to action sequences and rapid-fire dialogue, but was otherwise pedestrian.

The World-building (or lack thereof)

Am I the only one who doesn’t have a clear idea of what Thessan looks like, or what it’s like to live there? Exposition reveals that it was once a barren desert, plagued by famine and disease, until “God” created the Savior, who was able to use her divine power to heal the land and make it fertile again. Now, Thessan has hills, and sugarcane fields, and forests. There’s a big fortress where the Savior and the Sovereign live. There’s a road to the fortress. The fortress has several gardens, one of which is populated by weeping angels. Oh, and it has a watchtower. Can’t forget the watchtower, which is definitely useful in a land that hasn’t been at war for centuries. And that’s it. That’s the extent of my knowledge about Thessan.

I have heard over and over again that it’s supposedly modeled off of ancient Greece and Rome, but I have no idea how people came to that conclusion, other than the fact that Thessians seem to wear togas and apparently love watching dudes beat each other up in arenas.

I know even less about the other countries, which seemed like they were added as an afterthought. One of them is called Ethyua, and that’s where dark-skinned people are from. Ethyuans like jewelry. One of them is called Kovahr, and that’s where light-skinned people are from. Kovahrians like fighting. One of them is called…I forget, because it’s so irrelevant. In my head, when I try to see the word, I just think of “pork.” No idea why. From what I recall, its rulers were an old man and his sexually aggressive younger wife, and they didn’t even appear in this book, as far as I can tell. None of these countries were relevant, save for a poorly executed red herring involving Kovahr.

The Verdict:

This ain’t it, chief. However, I’d be willing to keep reading the series to see if it improves. I don’t particularly care about the characters or the plot (except Talos and Flynn), but I would like to see if the magic system or political situation are ever adequately explained.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a disappointment. This book was not executed well and it was just a rehash of The Saviors Champion with a bit of extra perspective. Two stars because I love the premise, just wish we had actually gotten some content

[Ash Ellithorne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Jenna Moreci, but unfortunately, it's probably the one I had the most trouble with. I didn't enjoy E:tA much, but TSC was fun in a pizza and ice cream way. It was a campy, over-the-top, gore and action kind of book with a decent amount of humor to lighten it up. This one should have been more my speed--I love political fantasy, I enjoyed Leila quite a bit in TSC, and I was sure that the quibbles I had were all things that could be addressed. I was sorely mistaken. Beware of extensive spoilers below.


The Disappointing:

The Main Ship- While I enjoyed Tobias and Leila's relationship in TSC, TSS pretty effectively ruined that for me. Leila comes across as flighty, jealous, and inconsistently characterized. She goes from a deadly badass to a giggly schoolgirl with her first crush several times per chapter--sometimes even per page. The chemistry simply wasn't there this time around. I'll talk more about Leila later.

The Savior's Court- I adored all of these ladies in TSC, but TSS squandered most of my goodwill toward them. Delphi is reduced to constantly thinking about sex, either trying to get Leila some or having a quickie, herself. Pippa is cute but useless, only appearing in a handful of scenes throughout the entire novel. Cosima deserves her own point, so she'll be discussed later.

The Worldbuilding- I had hoped that, seeing the story through the lens of someone who was actually invested in the tournament, the goings-on of the palace, and Thessen as a whole, some of my problems with TSC might be resolved. This did happen, to an extent. Leila actually spends time describing things I wanted to see in TSC. She talks about art a bit, she builds some of the culture, but it didn't feel organic to the story. I still don't have a clear idea of anything meaningful to the story. It seemed like Moreci had a checklist of complaints about TSC and threw in a paragraph or two every now and then.


The Nitpicky:

Palace =/= Fortress- In what seems to be a running issue with Moreci, there is another case of the wrong word being used consistently throughout. The place Leila lives is either a fortress or a palace, depending on what the scene needs it to be. Those are very different things that serve very different purposes. Is it a palace that Brontes built a hasty wall around after the death of the previous Savior? Is it a fortress from when Thessen used to be at war with its neighbors that was later converted into a palace? Either would work, but I'm not given that answer, so I can't clearly picture what any of it looks like. This probably won't bother anyone but me, but keeping in mind the "dissected alive" and "labyrinth" quibbles from Moreci's previous works, it irked me every time I saw it.

The Proper Nouning- Good Gods was this distracting. Everything about Leila, every mention of her, is capitalized. It happened in TSC, too, but it was less obnoxious since it didn't happen in almost every sentence. I found it distracting, and it routinely threw off the rhythm of a sentence. I found myself backtracking to see if I'd missed punctuation somewhere and was supposed to be starting a new sentence. It also didn't make sense for Leila to think of herself this way, especially given that we're told again and again that she's tired of being seen as just The Savior. It could have been a neat transition for her to start off thinking of herself so properly and, over the course of knowing Tobias, phase it out as she gets treated more like a person.

The Voice- TSS couldn't seem to decide if it wanted to have a high-fantasy, formal feel or more modern prose. It worked for Tobias because he was coming out of a lower-class lifestyle into a realm of royalty. It didn't work for Leila and only added to the impression that this wasn't completely thought through.


The Bad:

The Representation- Hoboy, where to start. Moreci talks every so often on her YouTube channel about meaningful representation, how not to write stereotypes, and how not to tokenize your marginalized characters. None of that was put into practice in TSS.

Delphi- The only Black character with any kind of presence, also the only lesbian. She's promiscuous, supportive, and that's about it. If it weren't for the fact that Leila walks in on her with various female love interests throughout the story, you never would have known it.

Pippa- Pippa has some sort of developmental disability, keeping her eternally youthful and naive. That's literally all we're told about it, and it never affects the narrative. She could have just been naturally optimistic and cheerful--or removed from the story altogether--and it would have changed nothing.

Wembleton- Arguably the biggest representation fail in TSS. Every scene Wembleton is in runs rampant with fatphobia. He can't enter a scene without mention being made of how he waddles, his fleshy figure, how his body jiggles. He's meant to be a despicable character, one that Leila hates, but there are ways to do that without relying on how his belly hangs low and how touching him is like jelly. As a fat person who struggles a lot with body image, this was incredibly hard to read, and I nearly DNFed the whole book several times.

Cosima- Cosima was one gigantic missed opportunity. If she and Leila had been close at the beginning and gradually drifted apart, that would have worked for me. Or if she'd gone to work with Brontes so that Leila could get a more reliable person on the inside of her father's plan and then gotten turned to his side. Or literally anything other than what I got in this book. Leila and Delphi treat Cosima horribly, even as kids. Any time Cosima isn't with them, they're talking about how shallow and untrustworthy she is. Honestly, by the time her "treachery" is revealed, I was not only not surprised (even if I hadn't read TSC, I'd have seen it coming) I was rooting for her. Respect is a two-way street, and Leila never takes a single step on it.

The Twist- Moreci is fond of her twist villains, but this one fell flat. We find out early on that there's a spy among the people close to Leila. When the traitor is finally revealed to be Cecily, it doesn't really land because I didn't care about her to begin with. I literally forgot she existed half the time. For a betrayal to work, the reader has to be invested in them, has to trust them. Delphi would have worked--for all my complaints about how she was treated in this book, I still enjoyed her for the most part. That would have been an actual gut-punch. But a woman who's only present in maybe five scenes out of more than six hundred pages? It doesn't matter how much you tell me Leila liked this character if I don't like her, too.

I'm also going to make a prediction here that Moreci is setting up Talos to either be The Actual Sovereign and/or is Leila's Real Dad. Why Brontes locked him up in a dungeon instead of killing him outright, I have no idea.

Brontes- Bear with me a moment. A quick hypothetical. You have just been crowned the Sovereign of the realm. You've married your goddess wife, and she is now heavily pregnant with the next Savior. Your time is running out to kill them both. You successfully dispatch your wife, but now you're stuck with the baby. Do you:

-Kill her when she's still small and cast blame elsewhere.
-Mother Gothel that bitch and make her think you and only you care about her and the outside world is dangerous.
-Lock her away, only bringing her out to bless the land (either telling the citizens that she died but everything is fine or raise a fake Savior that you can control).
-Let her grow up knowing that you hate her and are trying to kill her, wait until she's an adult to hire a group of assassins to enter an elaborate tournament to marry her and then have them kill her so you can frame a neighboring country for the murder and then go to war because World Domination, I guess.

If you said anything but the last, you're smarter than Brontes. His whole plan is so messy and convoluted I'm surprised it didn't fall apart long before now. But then there's a reason for that, and it's also the reason this book failed for me.

Leila- Leila herself is the biggest problem with the book. She finds out when she's a child, no older than seven or eight, that Brontes murdered her mother, tried to kill Leila, and will try again. She takes no discernable steps to try to fix this. She threatens Romulus (by threatening to kill Pippa) into being her spy but otherwise doesn't seem to do much.

I could handwave this because she's just a child; how much could she actually accomplish? But even as she grows older, the only actions she seems to take are being petulant in Senate meetings and having Talos (how did she even find him?) teach her how to fight. Oh, and killing off members of the Senate, because she's so badass. She doesn't cultivate her own spy network. She doesn't spend time studying politics or tactics. She doesn't even try to sneak out into the village. If Princess Jasmine could climb over a palace wall at fifteen without any help or magic, I'm sure Leila could have found a way.

She also treats her staff and her Sisters incredibly poorly. I've already talked about how she is with Cosima, but she's also not a great friend to Delphi. Delphi routinely tells her not to shadow-walk into her room without notice. Leila does it anyway. Repeatedly. Often interrupting Delphi's trysts. She snaps at anyone who tries to help her. The narrative tries to frame it as she's stressed and doesn't know who to trust, but it just feels like she doesn't honestly think of them as worth her time.

She's even horrible to Tobias. In TSC, I could ascribe my own logic to her continuing to keep her identity a secret. In TSS, with her thoughts front and center, she just comes across as shallow and honestly kind of stupid. He's literally fighting for his life, and she doesn't give him the one piece of information he needs to keep his head up and give him hope. Why? Because of some perceived slight. I'm sincerely worried about the fate of Thessen when she's finally able to take her throne.

I don't know yet if I'm going to read The Savior's Army. On the one hand, I've been here this long. On the other hand, do I really want to spend another 500+ pages with these characters? I've invested nearly 1200 pages and who knows how many hours already (when both of these books could have been cut in half and combined), so part of me feels it would be a waste not to see it through. On the other, is it worth it?

[Steven Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I RECEIVED AN ARC IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW***

Oh, boy. Where to begin with this one? If you've read my review of The Savior's Champion (the first novel and companion to this one), then you know that I'm at least gonna enjoy myself here.

***

SPOILER WARNING!

Full disclosure:this review contains some spoilers for The Savior's Champion, as well as for the very beginning of this book.

You have been warned.

***

The Savior's Sister tells the story of Leila and her "sisters," as they navigate the political intrigue of the Capitol of Thessen, a Greek-inspired dark fantasy world.

Early in the book, we dive into the gilded underbelly of court politics, and we see the murder and betrayal that transpires behind drawn curtains. Leila proves herself to be a brutal survivalist in this setting. "Cutthroat" may even be a bit on-the-nose. Willing to do anything to thwart the Sovereign (the king, and her biological father) from his selfish machinations, Leila learns of a plot against her that dials her urgency to 11.

Having read The Savior's Champion, I was excited to return to the characters in the world, and they did not disappoint! I loved returning to the sisters, especially Delphi (my all-time favorite, with her cunning and insight). We got some representative confirmation early in the book for a character previously coded as neuroatypical but not explicitly stated as such, and that was a needed and appreciated confirmation, in my opinion.

I generally enjoyed seeing the personalities of characters we met in The Savior's Champion developed further, as that was one of my "meh" points of the previous book.

In terms of the main character, I had very mixed feelings. In the first book, Leila was a strong, independent woman who was willing to stand up for others and defend them, which I thought made her an excellent fit for Tobias. However, this book opens with Leila being brutal and at times, straight-up savage to people, even going so far as to commit murder without batting an eye. That left a really unpleasant taste in my mouth, and despite her desperate circumstances, I struggled to root for her at times as a protagonist. I understand that the book is very overtly a dark fantasy, but Leila had very few redeeming qualities in the beginning, and if I hadn't seen the character in the previous book, I would not have had the insights into her redeeming qualities.

This book, even more than TSC, skews toward a dark fantasy reminiscent of G.R.R. Martin, which isn't a bad thing, but it definitely had a strong tonal shift from the previous book, in that our hero for this one is grittier and more brutal than the last, and I struggled to discern the hero from those she so strongly opposed. Honestly, it was difficult to find how she had any moral high ground initially, outside of her birthright.

That being said, the beginning of the book definitely cemented her as a child of Brontes in my mind in more ways than appearance alone, and I actually came to appreciate and respect the author's choice of adding in that similarity, especially considering Leila's continuous denouncement of physical similarities in the beginning between Herself and Brontes.

As I came to see the whole picture, I came to appreciate the character still more, and I found nuance where I previously dismissed her. This was never more evident than in why Tobias is such a good fit for her. The adage of opposites attracting and all that might come to mind, but in truth, each holds a definitively distinct perspective of the world. Tobias is kind and idealistic, willing to defend others at his own sacrifice, while Leila is practical and direct, favoring direct action and confrontation of problems more head-on.

The more I read the book, the more these things proved true: I saw why Jenna made many of the decisions that she did when writing Leila and Tobias, as well as when writing the greater plot at large.

One of my chief complaints of the series was in why Brontes went about his plan in the way he did. It seemed overly complicated and drawn-out, and while I still think this is true to a degree, the author definitely tried to answer this question and did provide some needed context.

As I was reading the political interactions, especially those in a public setting, in this book, I found myself thinking that it wasn't very realistic, and I began poking some holes in how the interactions were carried out and asked why certain things were even allowed by a senate whose job it was to uphold the rule of the Savior.

Now, without getting (too) political, I will say that recent events have shown me that the political writing is actually pretty true to reality, in that when someone with a lot of power does or says something, even if it is not legal, ethical, etc., people are inclined to allow it, because of "chain of command," excusing their deplorable actions with "I was told to do it" or "I was only following orders."

The book really hits the dark elements of the dark fantasy in a meaningful way, and there were times I felt genuinely helpless, angry, and frustrated with the system Leila was fighting so valiantly. I think Leila offers a degree of catharsis for those frustrated with corruption and evil, and while I uphold that I struggled to like her initially in this book, I do think her characterization makes sense, by and large, given her circumstances.

In terms of the magic system, I think Jenna does an excellent job of limiting her soft magic system in an effective way. While it's not clear exactly what all of the specific rules are for Leila's magic, there's definitely a tone that limits exist, in spite of her being divine. In D&D terms, Leila really evoked those divine soul sorcerer vibes for me, and I enjoyed that a lot.

The Savior's Sister also includes a fantastic array of diversity, with characters having a broad spectrum of sexual orientations, genders, skin colors, body types, disabilities, and all that entails. While not all elements are tackled in equal measure, this novel does a fantastic job of normalizing many identities by not drawing active attention to them.

One last note: you have to be ready for a LOT of strong language, especially referencing naughty bits. Obviously, this is an adult book, and a gritty one at that, but for some reason, some people in these reviews often seem shocked that such a thing happens. Let me tell you, if you can;t handle reading c-words dozens of times, you might wanna skip this one before hand. It does fit the setting, but I feel it bears mentioning.

Overall, The Savior's Sister takes classic elements of dark fantasy, blends them with a well-written romance, and delivers some feels along the way. The setting isn't necessarily revolutionary or anything, but it definitely executes what it aims to by presenting a well-developed setting and a new perspective to a familiar tale. Would recommend.

[Rel Carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though my review of book one, TSC, was not particularly favorable, I do think that the story itself was very memorable. The action scenes were gripping and overall dark fantasy plot was intriguing. So, I didn't need a refresher read to notice that The Savior's Sister is the same exact book (just with a few more c**k jokes to replace the c**t jokes.) Absolutely NOTHING happened in this 'companion novel' that we didn't already know or couldn't easily infer from book one except we do learn that Leila is a poor leader, shoddy strategist, and an even worse sister. She alienates Cosima and allows Pippa, her little 'duckling' mentally handicapped sister, to wander freely through the labyrinth sanctuary with 15+ rapists. Again, with such a low bar for romantic partners, Tobias seems to be the best choice by default. Every relationship/story problem in TSC (and now TSS) could've been solved with a bare minimum of communication and emotional intelligence from Leila. She may not have the approval of the ten (or less) men attempting to usurp her throne, but for crying out loud, she has glowing super powers! Not to mention an entire fortress, no a *country* of adoring allies. I know this series has a huge fan base... Sadly, I'm just not one of them.

[Tamsin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is genuinely the worst book I've ever read. Ruined my day and made me so angry and frustrated with how absolutely dense Leila is. I literally cried tears of frustration because she was so unbelievably idiotic. I wanted to murder her myself so the book would be over. Really disappointed because I loved the first one. I want to know what happens next but at this point my mental health can't risk another read in this series.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really want to like the book, but in all honesty I just feel like I have been tricked into buying the same story again. Sure the point of view was different, but It covered the exact same time frame as TSC it brought little new to what was going to happen. I just found it frustrating.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hrm...not too sure how to review this one. While The Savior's Champion wasn't without it's flaws, I read it quickly and had a good time. I can't say the same for it's companion. Like a few other reviewers I feel this part of the story could have been told as dual POV in one book (or dual POV over 2 books). It has been awhile since TSC came out and I can't remember a lot of what happened so reading Leila's perspective felt disjointed. I had no idea what just happened in the tournament so my reading experience was tarnished because I felt like I missed the action.

The other thing that disappointed me about TSS was that I never really felt like Leila was in danger. Brontes is horrible but she just flittered around the palace killing people and doing whatever she wanted. Brontes wasn't this looming presence that did deplorable things at every turn. He just kinda showed up for meetings, insulted her and then went on his way. I think he would have been a more compelling villain if he was really quiet and reserved. That way a sneaky and underhanded plot to kill his daughter would have made him seem smarter and so much more terrifying. One of the many other 'villainous' characters is Cosima, who deserves better to be honest. She isn't that bad, she's just doing what Leila asked of her and living her life. Leila is so horrible to her throughout the book it reflects poorly on Leila as a character not Cosima. It's a missed opportunity to create a really interesting dynamic, but Leila is mean to Cosima right off the bat so it feels like they were never friends let alone sisters. Leila is subliminally gearing you up to hate Cosima the whole way through and therefore Cosima's character is nowhere near as complex as it could be, because it's clear she has only one function.

The romance was bland too. Tobias isn't a heart stopping love interest. I think there should have been more pining and cute moments together before confessing their love and coupling up. The conflict within the relationship was forced too. He kept saying he hated the Savior and in Leila's head that means he hates her when it's very clear he doesn't like Cosima as a person and he's saying that to assure Leila that he loves her and doesn't want to marry Cosima. When Leila is close to telling him the truth, she uses this as an excuse to continue to hide her identity. The story didn't need it and neither did the romance. It was repetitive and dragged all the time she spent with Tobias down. It would have been better if they worked together as a team and she trusted him with her secret when they got closer.

There is a lot of filler that could be cut to make way for more impactful emotional moments, character development and world building. It felt like a lot of it was just Leila sitting around talking to people without achieving much. This adds to the feeling that she isn't really in danger. There is no urgency in the way the story plays out. We're just told that she has to thwart her own assassination and the 'action' of it all is dragged down by needless conversations between Leila and Delphi about how hot Tobias is.

In terms of the characters, I think this book negatively impacts what was built in TSC. Leila is really unlikable and Tobias is boring. Since we're not in Tobias' head this time, he really needed to jump off the page more. Leila was just a bitch for most of it and while I understand she isn't treated well by her father and she is trapped in the palace, her character isn't conducive to the way she was raised. It's like her past doesn't impact her at all. She behaves like she once had all this power and control and now it's being taken away. She doesn't know what freedom is so wouldn't it have impacted her mental state and shaped who she is as a person now? If she knows her dad is a bad guy there really should have been more of a spiral when she started killing people.

On the subject of killing, she was wayyyy too cavalier about the murdering. A slow decent into madness over what she 'had' to do and the idea that she's becoming her father would have made for a much more compelling read and have softened Leila's character a little.

While we're on characters, it needs to be mentioned that there are way too many in this book. Between all the palace staff and the core cast it is impossible to keep them straight. About two thirds of them should be scrapped because they serve no purpose. It's already hard enough to remember all the competitors and their laurels without needing to remember the name of every staff member and their function. I often had to go back to Jenna's Instagram and YouTube to look at the fan art again. The overwhelming number of characters heavily impact what I'm guessing was supposed to be a big shock at the end. When Leila finds out who Brontes is working with I was like 'wait..who's that again?' I just think about how amazing it would have been if it was a character we liked and were attached to, not a palace staffer that was only mentioned a couple of times before.

All in all, TSS felt unnecessary and was a bucket of ice water on the warm feelings I had for TSC. Whenever I put it down I lacked the desire to pick it up again which was not a problem I had with book 1.

[Ceej · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hoped this would be better than the Savior's Champion, but it was worse.

Pros: This book did answer pretty much all of the questions and confusion that TSC left me with.

HOWEVER, companion novels should be able to stand on their own, and having to invest in another half-baked book for the other half-baked book to make sense is nothing but a greedy marketing ploy. I can appreciate the full story of the Sovereign's Tournament now, but I should have been able to figure it out independently rather than relying on two 500 word books to tell one crazy, frustrating story.

Cons: The grammatical choice to capitalise all of Leila's pronouns was distracting and disorienting, and for me it had a huge impact on the readability, syntax and flow of the novel.

This book made me hate Leila and Delphi. There was so much wasted potential in these characters, and the story could have been so compelling, especially in the exploration of Cosima, who I think did a wonderful job at playing Savior. I would have loved to see Pippa explored more too—and not as "duckling", but as an adult woman. Her portrayal was extremely problematic for reasons I don't think I need to explain.

This book was riddled with misogyny and misandry, which was a huge problem for me simply because the characters couldn't even do that justice. To sum up TSS, I couldn't use anything but "shallow"—that applies to the plot, the characters, and the concept of companion novels in general.

And yet, I will be reading the next books in this series because I'm invested in seeing improvement in this story. It can be saved, and I really hope that Moreci takes the reader feedback on board and puts more effort into characterisation and intelligent plotting.

[Quinn W Buckland · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I really wanted it to be better than TSC, but I guess we can't always get what we want.
If you've read TSC, you've basically read 2/3 of this book. All the scenes Tobias and Leila shared in TSC are all here again, but from her perspective.
Leila is a total psychopath who is a jealous bitch and treats her allies like dirt.
The romance scenes are way more saccharine than I remembered from the first book, and the dialogue is really cringy.
The writing is alright, except for the repeated phrases and a whole lot of glowering.

All in all, I not only can't recommend this book, but I openly state that nobody should get this garbage. I wish I had something positive to say about it, but I can't think of any.

[Max Lawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Though I can only offer a perspective from what I read in the first fifty pages on her website, I feel compelled to state that I am not surprised that Jenna has decided to extend her series in this direction.
To be honest, I am bemused by this turn in events.

Because while some might see a do-over of the original to be a cash grab of some sort, I personally see it as something more direly poetic; The sign of an author struggling to build a narrative atop of a faulty foundation.

Some might say I’m not giving the book a fair shake, but once introduced to the faulty building materials Jenna’s chosen to approach this task with, I immediately determined that there was no point in hanging around to watch the disaster play out.

In the first few chapters Leila neurotically swings between a sadistic, homicidal aristocrat to a benevolent damsel longing for true love.
There is no pause between transitions. Jenna merely snaps her fingers and the character dons a new personality suitable for whichever occasion she’s teleported her into.

While there is undoubtably some reason to assume that following such an unhinged mix of character traits through her adventures is going to be memorable, I’m afraid I’ve seen it done one too many times to bother taxing myself with the page-count Jenna deems essential.

Worse then slogging through the proportions, is the idea that I’m supposed to take this as anything other then an exhaustingly repetitive joke.

Already the author is splicing up her torture scenes and uncreative attempts at toilet humour with numerous paragraphs dedicated to sympathy begging backstory. But I ask you; Why would I empathise with the plight of an MC who clearly has no functioning moral compass?
Am I expected to shed tears for a caricature who slays and tortures with all the emotional investment she wipes her regal ass?

If Jenna had wanted to regale me with the exploits of a self aggrandising lunatic, I would’ve been interested.
But sadly, she is also insisting that I spend just as much of the time (if not more) hearing about how persecuted and sorry for herself this character is.

Pick a tone. Is it to be empathy or absurdity? Because desperately darting between the two without even attempting to connect the dots is only going to render the whole outing pointless.

But then, given the outcome of the last book, I suppose there is no surprise to be garnered there.

Amusingly, if there was one, and only one thing to be deduced from this new instalment, it would be the solidification of my suspicion that Jenna hates the mere existence of sexual rivals who might pose some kind of intellectual threat to her two dimensional characters.
Or have you not noticed how the only figures in her story that are spared of her incessant vilification are blindly devoted males, homosexual females, and the mentally challenged?

But then, while I find it highly suggestive that the author might’ve created a series that enforces a vacuum of sexual competition, I have to ask myself; Why bother digging deeper if the only treasure on offer is the blatant insecurities of a rambling, paranoid author?

On a side note, I can't help but notice that this book has received a good number of five star ratings just recently.
These figures recently joined GR, they joined on the same day, they come from the same place, and they rated these books on the same day.
Bit of an odd coincidence isn't it??????

[ElsieAgnes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly this is not good companion novel. It is downright confusing, often unreadable and I hate to say it...... boring.

Very little makes sense and there is so much telling not showing that as a reader I don't care nor believe. It’s an unnecessary second instalment that actually detracts from the first and ultimately amplifies all the flaws of the story telling and the plot.

Like many who have reviewed this book, I have been a fan of Jenna’s YouTube channel and have learnt a lot from her but in the case of this book it seems to be ‘do as I say not as I do.’

Others have explained the flaws in this book far more eloquently than I ever could but I will say there are some great ideas and characters in there somewhere but they are trapped in a muddled mess of unnecessary descriptives and filler, sudden personality changes and actions that make no logical sense. Characters that Jenna wants us to so desperately hate end up becoming sympathetic and tragic because the main character is so horrid and self centred.

The book could easily lose 20-30 even 40 thousand words and become more concise. While a lot of the relationships are one dimensional, disposable and make no logical sense other than being plot devices to try and justify the protagonist behaviour. And the protagonist is so unlike able that it was a real struggle to finish.

I have heard Jenna on her channel try to explain away or justify her plot holes and the down right dumb choices her characters make but being a minor YouTube celebrity does not make you exempt from ‘If it’s not on the page, it does not happen’.

Sadly this is a classic cash grab from a self published author who is more interested in talking about her book and marketing it than actually taking the time to improve as a writer and ‘levelling up’

I also think this book may be wrongly promoted? This is not a dark fantasy, It’s a young adult romance where everything is secondary including the world-building and magic system development to the ‘love story’ Whether Jenna knows this or not it’s not clear but perhaps changing her advertising strategy to young the adult romance crowd might help?? Maybe?

It does make me reflect on the self-publishing Vs traditional publishing rivalry. There is no way this book would ever make it past an editor in its current state in traditional publishing and I am thinking that maybe Jenna would benefit from some unbiased help from people that she is not connected to in the self-published community, I fear her popularity may be a disadvantage and she is not getting honest reviews, which is not fair on Jenna.

[Ella De · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't very fond of "The savior's champion" but allthough it was a very flawed book it still was entertaining and had this special charm, like the trashy 90s fantasy tv series did. But the companian novel "The savior's sister" even lacks this positive trait and somehow got worse.

***Potential spoilers ahead***

I hoped, that this novel would fill in some blanks, the first one had left. It didn't, but it managed to make Leila who was an ok character in the first book completely unlikeable and showed in depth, how stupid the whole story is when it comes to the motivations of the characters.

Let's start with Leila. Sorry but she is portraied as a plain psychopath. When she is a kid, she overhears that her father wants to kill her and the first thing that comes to her mind, is to take a mentally "delayed" (the description used in the book) girl hostage und threaten do kill her, if her grandfather doesn't obey her. And the plan, how to claim her right to the throne is also quite dumb. Leila has never ruled, she was never taught how to, she wasn't really involved in the politics of her realm, doesn't have connections to other regal families, etc and the only plan she has, is so kill everyone who sides with her father, which means the whole senate. How she wants to be able to rule her country after that, is never mentioned.
But maybe this kind of bad planning runs in the family because we can also see it in her father. Brontes wants to kill his daughter, so he can rule alone. But through the whole novel, we ware reminded over and over and over again, that only the savior can keep the darkness away. The darkness is a kind of disease, that will spread again and kill all people, crops and animals if the savior does not bless the land constantly. And from what is described it sounds like we are talking days here, maybe a week or two until it would spread without the blessing.
Yes, Brontes has somekind of potion made from his daughter's blood to keep him and his konkubine healthy but what does he want to rule over when everyone and everything died?

The novel would have been such a great opportunity to explore the dynamics between the four "sisters". It would have made for such an wonderful psychological insight into the characters, but all of it is wasted. Leila und Delphi simply are the good girls. Leila murders everyone she doesn't like and everybody is ok with it. Delphi sleeps around and it is just fine.
Cosima sleeps around, in the beginning for fun, later to save her life, because she has nothing more to offer than her body and gets slut shamed permanently. Leila asks Cosima to play the savior and her "sister" agrees, does her best to fullfill the task, really does a great job and Leila hates her for it...
And then there is Pippa who is treated like a pet, Leila is carrying around.

Still there is absolutely no world building, the magic is not explained and doesn't really make sense if you think about it. And the language starts to get annoying very fast. The idea to have all personal pronouns referring to Leila with a capital letter is pulling you out of the story everytime and Jenna can't decide what her characters should sound like. On the one hand they use antiquated phrases and start their sentences with "appologies" on the other hand, they are talking like modern teens and using the word "cock" so often, you could make a drinking game out of it.

600 pages and nothing new or slightly interesting. I am done with the savior series and will not purchase the third book once it's published.

[R.L. Davennor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm left so speechless I really don't know where to begin—other than to say Jenna Moreci has completely and utterly blown my mind.

To those of you who say 'there's no more story left to tell': you couldn't be more wrong.

Leila is easily one of my favorite protagonists I've ever read in fiction. She is calculating, cunning, decisive, and yet incredibly vulnerable at the same time. You may think you know what's going to happen having read The Savior's Champion, but trust me: whatever your predictions, whatever your assumptions...you're wrong. I was at each and every twist and turn. Not only that, but Moreci kept me on the edge of my seat, turning the pages long into the night after I'd told myself 'one more chapter' 3 chapters—and often hours—ago.

This didn't feel like a companion novel despite knowing logically that it was—it felt like an entirely new story. The stakes were much direr, Brontes and his cronies sneakier, and the betrayals sliced that much deeper. You see the same familiar characters in a brand new light, giving them an entirely more sinister feel, and it was deliciously dark from beginning to end. Moreci doesn't shy away from the blackness surrounding the human heart, and it left me the strangest mixture of both disgusted and yet awestruck at how masterfully she made these characters and their motives come alive.

At the same time, this is a heart-stopping (and throbbing) romance. Knowing Leila's true identity makes no difference, and neither does the fact that I'm watching the same love story unfold for a second time. Everything felt new, sensual, and real, and I felt Leila and Tobias connect on an even deeper and more profound level than they did the first time. The swirling colors, her reasons for keeping her secret, the heartbreak and triumph...it's everything I wanted in a romance and more.

This is an absolute must-read for any lover of dark fantasy romance—as I surely will again and again.

[Lex 🖤✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED LOVED LOVED!!!

The Savior’s Sister is a companion novel in The Savior’s Series. It follows the events of book 1 but this time in a whole new perspective, Laila’s.

The focus has shifted creating a whole new story in the way. Fear not, while The Savior’s Sister still contains the beautiful romance between Tobias and Leila, it is a whole new experience. This time we get to see everything from the palace, including the secrets and traitors that lurk within, and Leila’s fight to defeat her father.

A book filled with blood, schemes, danger, romance, strong women and above all EMOTIONS. The Savior’s Sister is definitely a must read. I can t recommend it enough, specially to those who have loved The Savior’s Champion. And if you have not read this series yet then go check that book out, then come read this one. I promise you won’t regret it.


DISCLAIMER: I WAS GIVEN A FREE ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.