A review by scriptrix
Vows of Empire by Emily Skrutskie

Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.

No one is more disappointed than me that this series isn't what I hoped it would be. :( Book 1 was great, but book 2 got too in the weeds of politics and I wasn't as into it as I had expected. This one was just too much action. Like, nonstop battles and people running around doing things. Which would have been less of a problem if I actually had any investment in the stakes! These leaders of empires battling with hardly any input from their subjects... it felt incredibly out of touch and reminded me why I have a problem with stories about monarchs and empires. Like, you can make your MC the Only Good King or whatever, but that doesn't change the fact that monarchy is still a bad power structure that is far too easy to abuse.

IDK, maybe I just didn't have patience for it. I was sure I'd be able to finish a less-than-300-page book, but after I got to halfway, I found myself skimming and just gave up and read the epilogue.