3 stars. 
 Ah, the book two slump. The downhill spiral. Whatever you want to call it, it's always looming over every book that presses past standalone, and you never know when it will strike. 
 After such a great first book, the second book was a bit of a let down. Maybe it was because the mystery of who's who was no longer there, and all that was left was the story and the characters. One of which was interesting, the other not so much. 
 The story is definitely interesting, and I am a sucker for a runaway/kidnapped Princess trope. However, I am not a fan of love triangles. And boy, does this book turn it up a notch from the first book. Now there is not just two, but three men vying for Lia's attention. In the first book, I was a fan of one. Now, I'm not so much a fan of any. The more this book went on, the further I was carried away from not just the romantic prospects, but all of the characters. 
 Whereas in the first book I felt it's focus was entirely on the characters and that the world building was barely there in the background, the reverse is true for book two. I was blown away at this huge reversal. The characters started to feel less and less real and more of a means to an end, and the world building had become complex and beautiful. 
 I also felt like the combining of the Song of Venda and Lia was somewhat...blurred, and I have failed, since book one, to care about these scripts or what it means for the story. I feel like they don't combine well. 
 I do plan on continuing with the series, and I am hoping that somehow the third book meets in the middle and makes the characters and world clear instead of one or the other.