Rating: 1.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Kestrel is now living with the royalty in the palace after arranging the treaty to release the Herrani from slavery and becoming engaged to Prince Verex. Her wedding is approaching, and with it, the responsibility of becoming future Empress. Kestrel and Arin are trying not to worry about each other, but are failing. The Emporer is threatening Kestrel, and will not stop until he is sure of her loyalty to him. This proves difficult for Kestrel when Arin and Herran's Minister of Agriculture (AKA spymaster) Tenson show up at the palace, and the Emporer is watching her interactions with them closely. Kestrel is stuck trying to hide her secrets from Arin, assist the Herrani, keep her best friend, and not get caught where she shouldn't be, all while trying not to arouse the suspicions of the Emperor. 
 I thought the first book of this series was okay, but nothing special. I saw a lot of elements in it from other YA books, which isn't necessarily bad. The only thing is, when using a trope that is seen so much throughout the YA genre, books that use them need to have SOMETHING to stand out from the crowd, and I don't think this series has that something special. I had hoped that this book would be better than the first but was also aware that second books in trilogies tend to be the worst. Unfortunately, this book disappointed me. 
 I saw so many similarities in this book compared to other YA books that I enjoyed a lot. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There was the threats of the King like in Throne of Glass, the spying like in An Ember in the Ashes, and arranged marriage of Red Queen, and some others that would be spoilers to mention. Once again, having similarities isn't a bad thing, but at the same time, readers who read similar books are bound to compare the two and decide which is better. And for me, every other book I compared this to, I thought the other book did it better. 
 I was mostly annoyed with how the characters in this book were acting, especially Arin. Arin would not stop making rash decisions and making assumptions and forcing himself onto Kestrel in a way where Kestrel was bound to get in trouble. Because of Arin, (view spoiler)[ Kestrel lost her best friend, made her father turn against her, and had her sent to a work camp. He obviously didn't do it with those intentions but did he ever stop to think about what his actions could cause? I think not. (hide spoiler)] I do with that we got to see more of Kestrel's cunning in this book, because I love a smart strategic female but I didn't see enough of that trait in Kestrel in this book. 
 Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this read. It wasn't awful, but I found myself bored quite a lot and hesitant to continue reading. It was also predictable in places and I could see the end of the book coming from a mile away. I may come back to the third book sometime in the future just to see how it ends, but I won't be rushing to get my hands on it at all. I wouldn't recommend this book too much - it isn't exactly fantasy (I'm not sure why it's tagged as that on GR) but more of an alternate universe type scenario. You may want to give it a go just to see, but don't go in expecting too much from it.