Title: Empire of Dust (Blood of Gods and Royals #2)
Author: Eleanor Herman
Rating: ★★★½

ARC received through NetGalley.

Even though Legacy of Kings was a bit lacking and slow, I really enjoyed it and knew I’d be continuing with the series. I like the mix of historical fiction with fantasy and the plot is super interesting. Luckily for me, Empire of Dust definitely improved from the first book. There was more action, the world building is expanded, and the plot and characters continue to develop wonderfully. 

There were more things I liked about this book than disliked, but my biggest issue was that there were way too many POVs. As with most books I read that have multiple POVs, I found myself only looking forward to a few of them, and then skimming the chapters written about the characters I couldn’t care less about – mainly Jacob and Olympias. It made the book seem like it was dragging on in a few spots since I had to wait a while until I could return to the characters I really liked. My favorite character so far has to be Hephaestion. I absolutely love whatever is growing between Heph and Katerina. I’m a sucker for a slow burn so the fact that there has been two whole books of built up tension and developing feelings has me totally hooked on their storyline. I’m also excited to learn more about the Gods and seeing what ends up happening with Cynane. 

Is Blood of Gods and Royals the best YA fantasy series I’ve read? No. But am I thoroughly entertained and invested in what happens next? Absolutely. I’m looking forward to the next in the series! 

P.S. Does anyone know how many books are going to be in this series? Is it a trilogy or longer? I hope it’s more than three books, I think there’s still too much left to be resolved in one last book without it feeling rushed.