Early Review – When Night Breaks (Kingdom of Cards, Book 2) by Janella Angeles (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: Oct 5th, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-1250204325
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Kingdom of Cards duology
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
“The competition has come to a disastrous end, and Daron Demarco’s fall from grace is front-page news. But little matters to him beyond Kallia, the contestant he fell for who is now missing and in the hands of a dangerous magician. Daron is willing to do whatever it takes to find her. Even if it means unearthing secrets that lead him on a treacherous journey, risking more than his life and with no promise of return.
After falling through the mirror, Kallia has never felt more lost, mourning everything she left behind and the boy she can’t seem to forget. Only Jack, the magician who has all the answers but can’t be trusted, remains at her side. Together, they must navigate a dazzling world where mirrors show memories and illusions shadow every corner, ruled by a powerful showman who’s been waiting for Kallia to finally cross his stage. But beneath the glamour of dueling headliners and never-ending revelry, a sinister force falls like night over everyone, with the dark promise of more―more power beyond Kallia’s wildest imagination, and at a devastating cost.
The truth will come out, a kingdom must fall, hearts will collide. And the show must finally come to an end.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in the Kingdom of Cards duology. I got an eGalley of this book to review through NetGalley.
Thoughts: This book picks up where the last one left off. Kallia wakes up in the mirror world and Daron is desperately trying to find a way into that world from the “normal” world ro find her.
This did a good job of wrapping up this duology and is beautifully written. Some things about the story remained a bit ambiguous and the story felt a bit long at points. I am still a bit confused about some overall concepts here; for example how did the mirror world form and why were people trapped there and what exactly are the devils? This was a long and wandering story and it’s possible I just missed some of that. I kept falling asleep while reading this, so it is possible I just wasn’t cohesive enough to make complete sense of all of this.
The story is written in a way that is beautiful, glittering but it wanders a lot. I felt like this book was a lot longer than it needed to be, a lot of the things that happened in the mirror world with Kallia felt unnecessary. There is also a lot of page space dedicated to characters standing around thinking about their lives rather than doing anything.
Despite all of my complaints, this does wrap up the story well. Even though parts of this did drag for me, I still enjoyed the pure spectacle of it. The descriptions of things that exist in the mirror world are glittering and unique and you never know what will be around the next corner.
My Summary (3.5/5): Overall I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first book in the series. It does a decent job of wrapping up the duology but wanders a lot as well. It felt like parts of this book were unnecessarily long. I also felt like by the end I still didn’t understand why a lot of things had happened. This is beautifully written and some of the descriptions are amazingly creative. I do think Angeles has a very unique writing style and I would like to see what she comes up with in the future.
