“Come ride with me through the veins of history.”

 

Spoilers for Queen of the Tearling ahead!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I dove right into this book since I enjoyed the first one so much and I already owned it. (Yep, still kicking myself for not picking up the third!) Invasion of the Tearling deals with the consequences of Kelsea’s breaking of the treaty with the country of Mortmesne and the Red Queen. As the vastly superior Mort troops begin to invade the Tear Kelsea struggles with how to save her people, with her own growing anger in frustration that is manifesting itself in some truly horrifying ways, and with her visions of a woman named Lily who lived 300 years in Kelsea’s past.

I definitely enjoyed this book as much as the first one. Watching Kelsea’s past (which is our future) was very informative. I did find that the middle part of the book dragged a little but I often have this issue with books where an inevitable fate is approaching through most of the plot. Kelsea’s ultimate confrontation with the Red Queen in the end was extremely satisfying as well when she finally got her groove back at the book’s conclusion. While I still can’t wait to read the resolution in the third installment, I was okay with taking a break from the Tearling for a bit to read something else.