Title: Glass Sword (Red Queen #2)
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publication: February 9, 2016
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 464
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.
The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.
But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.
Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
REVIEW:
I flew through the first book in this series. I soaked it up like a sponge. I immediately started this book, the second in the series, when I was done.
This book picks up exactly where the other one left off. As the book progresses we see Mare, Cal, her brother Shade and the rest of the group going out on missions. Each mission has a goal. To find all the new bloods before Cal’s brother, Maven, can kill them. Each mission is more dangerous than the last as they are racing Maven from town to town. Sometimes Maven beats them and leaves death and destruction in his wake. He either kills or kidnaps and imprisons the new bloods. He doesn’t care, he just wants to win. The hardest for Mare to take was a small baby that he killed and left a note on in a house. Things are going well for them, most of the time the new bloods joins there rank. That is until they reach a girl named Cameron. She is angry and scared. She holds Mare responsible for everything that Maven is doing. Deep down, Mare agrees with her. She is slightly responsible. Cameron tells them that she broke out of the prison. That is when she reveals her special power. The ability to “cancel out” other people’s power. She needs training though and Mare and Cal are just the ones to do it. The book comes to a tumultuous close as Maven gives Mare a choice. Will Mare choose correctly? Will they be able to save the new bloods that have gone missing?
I will say upfront that this book was harder for me to get through. The missions to get the other new bloods were just rather redundant. Each one was laid out in the same pattern and it lost my interest. I think I took a 2-month hiatus before I came back and finished it in like 3 days. I am still on the fence about Cameron. I want to like her but there is just something about her that makes me go ehhhhh. Finally, the Mare and Cal story is moving like it should. I hope that the story continues in the next book. If it doesn’t I may have to protest!! The characters are continuing to become well rounded and we find out more about the backstory of each one. Maven is still a nasty person. He wants to win and have Mare at any and all costs. I will certainly be reading the rest of the series before I head to BookCon in June where the author will be a guest. I AM SO EXCITED!!
STAR RATING: 4/5
Glass Sword is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all local bookstores. Make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave your feedback for the author when you are finished. Make sure to read Red Queen first, as it is the first book in the series by Victoria Aveyard. You can follow Aveyard on Twitter for more information on future work.