Gena Showalter
Montlake
2 December 2025
351
eBook - PDF
Romantasy
ARC via NetGalley
When Arden Roosa returns to Fort Bala Royal Academy, nothing is as it was. No longer just a lady-in-training, she’s now the infamous girlfriend of High Prince Cyrus Dolion—and the woman who brought down a king. Her reward? Round-the-clock guards and the attention of a royal executioner with secrets. But Arden has secrets too. As a double agent slipping between worlds to decode forbidden prophecy, she knows what’s coming. Sleeping gods are stirring, and a war igniting. With only a spark, everyone will burn.
But nothing goes according to plan. Grueling trials consume her days, and dangerous questions stalk her nights. Worse, Cyrus—the fierce, unshakable warrior she might love—is unraveling, losing pieces of himself, becoming a stranger right before her eyes. Desperate to save him, Arden strikes a life-altering alliance…and everything spirals. Now the gods are no longer dreaming. They’re hunting. Time is running out, the end closer than anyone dares to admit. Unless Arden can stop what’s coming, Cyrus will open the door to true evil—and she’ll lose him forever.
I read Kingdom of Today despite struggling with its predecessor only because I had already received the ARC for it and therefore wanted to at least give it a fair go. I'd hoped this second volume might be an improvement on the first, but unfortunately all the things I'd struggled with in book one I found equally irritating in this one, and that feeling only intensified as I approach the end of the volume and realised it wasn't even going to conclude but was going to be drawn out into a third installment. Out of interest, I glanced at other reviews of volume one (which is not something I tend to do) to see how others felt. I spotted a number of reviews where people cited the same issues I had raised in my review; however, there were also a number of positive ratings, so where this series is concerned, I think readers will need to try for themselves to see if the writing and story are to their taste or not. For me, though, this second volume is 2.5 stars, the same as the first. Needless to say I will not be requesting an ARC when book three releases, as this series is clearly not for me.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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