Sometimes you start a series thinking it's one thing and you eventually discover it's something else entirely - but in a good way. 
 I wasn't that impressed with The Queen of the Tearling. The beginning particularly felt very much like a generic YA: Chosen Girl is about to inherit a kingdom, she has magical pretty sapphires, she's ugly but plucky (and most likely will turn pretty at some point), she charges into a complicated situation and decides to free the slaves/save some people/screw everyone else who dies in the process. That last part is still very much part of the problem in this second book and although Kelsea spares a few thoughts for how many people in her army died, it still feels glossed over. 
 The Invasion of the Tearling is complicated and ambitious, I'll give it that. The problem is, I don't think it ever really lived up to the promise. In a lot of ways, whether this book is shelved as a YA or adult book because of the violence/rape/castration/etc. it still reads like a YA because of the lack of sophistication in the execution of the ideas. There's a certain quality to both books, perhaps from the glorification of Kelsea's role, that make me feel as though this is someone playing with ideas of rape, castration, war, slavery, sanctioned pedophilia, the Red Queen sacrificing children, and so on, not someone dealing with the realities of it. It's like these are used as plot devices for generic outrage and sometimes just not very well, which cheapens their effect. We, like Kelsea listening to Mhurn, are just listening to someone else's story of horror and loss, but at the end of the day, you feel vaguely bad about it but the real horror and loss never sinks in. 
 The best parts: the Queen's guard, Lazarus the Mace, interesting characters who show a range of motivations and backgrounds even in a backdrop of feudalism/nobility/honor. The characterization style is somewhat reminiscent of Game of Thrones, which is a relief from the usual black and white villains of YA, but at the same time a lot of the moments feel pretty heavy handed, e.g. the characters who are portrayed as good people doing bad things because of their circumstances or desperation. 
 The parallels between Kelsea and the Red Queen - many done through historical footnotes that are careful to point out that compassion and mercy are perhaps the only real differences between the two - explore the thin line between enlightened despotism and good old regular despotism. 
 The worst parts: Both books eventually drew me in but it's hard for me to get particularly excited about them or feel any connection to the characters. As I mentioned before, there's a soporific quality to the books where you almost feel like you're reading a history textbook - a very interesting one, but everything important has already happened and you're just reading about it in retrospect. Despite the title being about the Invasion of the Tearling, there isn't really any sense of urgency or excitement at any point except possibly for the very end. 
 Also, I just don't particularly find Kelsea that likeable and it's annoying that almost everyone in the book instantly has some kind of hero-savior complex where they see visions of her as the "True Queen" or demonstrate incredible loyalty and belief to her for seemingly little reason other than that she's at least better than her mom - which isn't saying much, as by all accounts her mom was a Marie Antoinette. I was reading the book more to read about the Mace, the Red Queen, just about everyone else rather than for Kelsea. Kelsea, for most of this book, shows up with convenient magical powers when needed, obsesses about her face and beauty - is it too little? too much? too magical? do we really freaking care anymore? - and then inexplicably decides to make a bargain with the devil despite receiving a pretty clear-cut warning (as prophecies go) against it. 
 The weird and not usually seen in YA: At some point in the first book, you realize that this is not set in some medieval fantasy world but actually in some sort of alternative history/future where you have a weird mix of fantasy/magic, colonial times technology, Enlightenment philosophy (regarding democratic principles of equality, social contract, etc.), and monarchy. Kelsea may perhaps be most accurately termed as wanting to be an enlightened despot. 
 At some point in the second book, there is a very Dragonriders of Pern moment when we finally get that this famous rebel "Crossing" isn't just across continents a la the Puritans and colonists, but across time. It was interesting to suddenly be switched from Kelsea to the entirely different story of Lily, abused wife of privilege in a society that is falling apart, but the transitions don't help the book out of its soporific slump. There's also some cognitive dissonance when trying to mix together a 21st century teenage mindset (particularly democratic principles) to an inherently privileged world of monarchy; I'm usually not too fond of authors who try to claim the best of both worlds despite the inherent hypocrisy and contradictions. What you end up is something like Napoleon Bonaparte carrying out democratic reforms and encouraging social mobility based on merit rather than birth or wealth, while crowning himself emperor and conquering other countries to give them, out of his vast generosity, democracy and freedom. Oh, and also crowning his brother king. 
 Overall: This is a book that tries to do a lot and achieves enough of it that it'll linger in your memory as something new and different. It's just in that twilight of could-be-great and not-quite-there that would inspire me to write a long and musing review of my experience with it. The books that blow me away are too overwhelming to write about and the books that are flat out terrible are generally not worth my time and ire.