Although Court of Fives wasn't that well received here on goodreads, I defended the book and left a largely positive review after the second half of the book redeemed most of the issues that made me almost give up during the first half. 
 Unfortunately, Poisoned Blade is very much a "it was okay" 2.5 stars at best. It may be that in the meantime, I'd read Marie Rutkoski's The Winner's Trilogy and a lot of the world building that I admired in Court of Fives was just done so much better by Rutkoski. Both series are set in a historical backdrop of an oppressed nation rising up to overthrow their imperial conquerors. Court of Fives links it much more explicitly to race and skin color, with Jessamy and her sisters representing the spectrum of light to dark skin (from their mixed ancestry) and exploring the equivalent of the concept of "passing." Both series focus on a protagonist who is a highly acclaimed general's daughter - as such, the heroine must balance her own desires with what was expected of her from society and from military fathers that they were raised to respect/love, but ultimately see as flawed and sometimes hypocritical men. There are a lot of other similarities but it really doesn't matter; I only include these comparisons because it helps me understand why I liked Court of Fives but also why I'm ultimately disappointed in this series. 
 I mentioned that I almost didn't even finish Court of Fives because the beginning was so slow and I felt no connection to any of the characters. Well, Poisoned Blade was even worse - I was about 200 pages in before I realized that the problem actually wasn't that I was reading little chunks of the book at a time due to an unusually hectic schedule, it was that I couldn't stay interested in the book enough to MAKE time in my schedule to return to it. I kept reading mostly out of stubbornness. 
 The entire concept of the Fives and the adversaries may be the series' weakest point, which is really saying something when you consider that it's also the central concept. I get what the author is trying to do - linking the Fives game to the health/success of the empire, somewhat with the idea of the bread and circuses (gladiators) of the Roman empire - but it never feels like it actually makes sense. While many YA novels have deliberately built themselves around similar themes (The Hunger Games being the most obvious and successful), I never get the sense that the Fives actually have anything to do with the revolution brewing in the empire or the threat of attack from outside forces. It just seems like something the author used just to give Jessamy a reason to be seen as a strong/smart heroine and to be around in the story. 
 Which leads me to the next point, which is that I disliked Jessamy a lot in the first book until she finally turned it around and became self-sacrificing rather than entirely self-interested, and actually started doing things to help her family. But Poisoned Blade feels like a huge step back in that regard. At the end of the day, I don't particularly care for Jessamy or her forbidden romance with Kal. Her actions and thoughts make me question her intelligence. I excused a lot of it in the first book by thinking of it as a bildingsroman - Jessamy might be ignorant and brainwashed, but that's just to give her room to grow, right? - except she just doesn't improve. It apparently never occurs to her that the history she learned from the conquering nation might not be the real history. She reacts to insults to her split heritage as if she were a spoiled princess who's so sheltered, she never considered what life was life for everyone else. Which would be fine if it seemed like she was slowly improving, but Jessamy of Book 2 is the same Jessamy of Book 1. 
 Throughout the book, I was struck over and over again by just how self-congratulatory she is and how she sees herself as so very clever in the Fives. Sure, she's worked hard for it so she's so very good and almost a celebrity at this quasi-important game/spectacle (that I still don't buy as being important), so now she can use this to become a symbol of...well, we don't know. Something. Because to heck with observing or noticing anything else. I just about lost it when she asks with apparent total sincerity, what does it mean that "Efea will rise?" 
 Gee, I don't know, maybe that the people belonging to the oppressed half of your heritage is not so happy with being oppressed and are going to rise in rebellion? Like, can someone spell it out to be even clearer for her so that she can finally get it? 
 Anyway, I'll cut my long review short here. My disappointment in this book was all the greater because I actually went against the rating/review consensus here for Court of Fives and tried to point out all the good things about it. I'll probably still read the next book out of my misplaced sense of obligation to finish series that I start, but I'm not looking forward to it. 
 There's a lot here that could have been interesting and could have been great. The politics, the alliances, even the religious/mystical aspects of the life "spark" and use in warfare. But ultimately all of these interesting roads lead to nowhere because they're held together messily by an uninspired protagonist and plot.