It will be impossible to write this review without spoilers, so don’t read if you don’t want to risk it!

After the ending of the first book in the series, I don’t think I even waited before picking up this one, I was so eager to know what happened to Alina and Mal.

What I didn’t expect was for their time together to go bad so quickly – less than 20 pages in and things were going south pretty quickly. I was so angry, I just wanted them to have chance to be happy together first!

Alina and Mal are on the search for the second amplifier to give them a chance to defeat the darkling, but no sooner have they found the second amplifier than they find out there’s a third one!

But can Mal and Alina stay together when they want such different things?! And what about Captain Sturmhond, is he a friend or a foe? His ideas seem very risky but I can’t tell if that’s calculated or foolhardy.

I was so gripped by what was happening to Alina and Mal that I got to three quarters through the book and then realised that it didn’t seem like there was much time for a dramatic ending.

But Alina was much cleverer than I am and the ending was definitely not what I expected – I think my jaw may have dropped as I was reading.

I desperately need to know what’s going to happen now – will they all escape from the tunnels? Will Alina and Mal finally end up together? I need to know!

This book was much more political than the first book. Less of a battle of powers and more posturing and scheming, I’ll be interested to see if the final book goes back the other way.

Fab book, not quite as exciting as the first one, but brilliant nonetheless!