| 4.5/5 stars. I’ve been a fan of Hutson for a long while, right around when Will Wight brought him to light. Honestly, I think he could have “made” it even without that. But I digress.Sequels are HARD to write. Rarely do they live up to the hype of the first book. And while I like The Crimson Queen better, I only like it better by a slim margin. This book picks up right where book 1 left off. And we hear from some different characters from different cultures. I LOVE these types of sweeping looks at fantasy worlds. Hutson does it superbly. Cho Lin was an awesome addition to the story. The writing is classic fantasy-style, without being stilted. Keilan’s character is growing at a good pace while remaining realistic to his age and capacity. Nel remains one of my favorite side characters in a book, ever.The only reason it’s not 5 stars for me is two-fold. First, there seemed to be some pacing issues. I know how hard it is to master this, ESPECIALLY in fantasy that requires a ton of world building. Still, it stumbled at some points, and I feel it could have been smoothed a bit more. And second, while Alyanna is a great villain in TCQ, I feel like her character arc was weaker in this book. There are obvious reasons for this as you read the book, but I feel like these issues, too, could have been smoothed out.All that to say, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this, as I suspected I would |
Grab it on Amazon or add to your Goodreads.
Silent No More 
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