A review by booksthatburn
A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin

Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

This picks up with no overlap from the end of the first book. The shift from a first-person perspective only in the first one to a combination of two narrators (one in first person and one in third person) makes the events at the palace feel disconnected. The first book ended in a cliffhanger where it was uncertain whether Ning would live or die, but then when this book begins she's just fine, with very little fanfare. I also remembered very little of the plot from the first book, partly because only a few important things actually happened. The story so far feels like it has very little to do with A MAGIC STEEPED IN POISON, and it's not one I'm interested in.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Violence, and Death

Minor: Animal death, Self harm, Murder, Death of parent, Dementia, Mental illness, and Medical content