ЯED by Jennifer Anne Davis

Title: ЯED

Author: Jennifer Anne Davis

Series: The True Reign # 2

Genre: Medieval, YA, Romance

Source: Kindle

Pages: 367 pages

Rating: 5 stars!

Available at:

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Sentenced to be executed.

Betrayed. Alone.

Hung on the gallows.

Rema thought her life was over, but she was wrong.

Saved by a rebel force she’d only ever heard rumors about, Rema finds herself in a forbidden place. She is finally safe—free from the king and Prince Lennek. But not everything is as it seems at the rebel fortress. Secrets are whispered, and loyalties are tested. Once Rema uncovers the truth of her heritage, will she flee? Or will she ascend to the throne, taking on the responsibility of an entire kingdom?

Now that Darmik knows Rema’s true identity, he’s on a quest to save her. But when an Emperion assassin arrives on Greenwood Island, Darmik knows he doesn’t have very long to find her. In a deadly game with high stakes, will Darmik remain loyal to his family? Or will he break away and join the rebels?

Kingdoms rise and fall.

Heroes are born and made.

But one thing remains the same—love conquers all.

My Review:

Gah! The second book of the True Reign series was basically everything I had hoped for.  It had a very Scent of Magic (by Maria V. Snyder) feel to it. I am so excited to review it! If you haven’t read my review of The Key, the first book in the series. I suggest you read it before reading this review. If you would like to read my review for The Key, you can read that HERE. Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

So Rema has been saved! She is now at the Rebel Camp (*cough* fortress *cough*) and is being healed before she starts training. She still doesn’t know who she really is and despite her best efforts, no one is telling her the truth. Meanwhile Darmik is all torn up about how he feels about Rema, but he is determined to find her. AND an assassin from their Sister Country has come to make sure that Rema dies because he DOES know whom Rema really is… Lastly, we have good ol’ Lennik who is being a spoiled little brat as usual. Now that we are all caught up on the brief summary here, lets get to the technical stuff.

The writing was a massive improvement from the first book. There was less of a cheesy factor at the entirety of the novel flowed a hell of a lot better than the first. The plot deepened nicely. Jennifer Davis continued the story right where she left off and introduced us to a whole range of new characters. In the first novel we only got to see brief fights with rebels. In this sequel, we got to see the Rebels in their entirety. It was a nice contrast to see the other side of the silent war. The most important role the Rebels play, in my opinion, is helping Rema really develop in this novel.

Gone is the girl who will accept things lying down. In this novel, she learns to defend herself, she learns how the other side has been living, and she learns a bit about herself and who she wants to be. On the other side of this battle, we see Darmik in his inner conflict about how he feels about Rema. He gets to truly see the ruthlessness of his father and brother and the cruelty they have inflicted to the country. Because of his love for Rema, he is able to see past his blind loyalty to his father to see the horrible ruler he is, and how much worse his brother will be.

I liked how the romantic aspect of the novel played out. We got a little bit of that love triangle going, and though I would hesitate once again to call it a TRUE ‘love triangle’, we did get to see other possible suitors for Rema’s love to decide how we felt about Darmik.

The one thing I didn’t like about this novel was the constant bouncing back and forth between Rema and Darmik. I know it was necessary, but I felt that it did interrupt the flow a little bit. It wasn’t a huge deal, more of a preferential thing, and I didn’t away points or stars for it, but I would have liked to see more of a focus on Rema’s POV, with the occasional POV of Darmik to learn what was going on behind enemy lines.

Overall, a GREAT second installment for the series. I can’t wait to read the third (and last?) installment! In typical Davis fashion, the sequel ends with a huge cliffhanger, so it will be interesting to see where things play out. I highly suggest this book for any Maria V. Snyder fans, and Sarah J. Maas fans out there!