Rebel Fires - Book 2 in the Rebel Skies Series

Author: Ann Sei Lin

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars 

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Published Date: July 5, 2023

The second book in the Rebel Skies series - Rebel Fires continues off where the first ended with Kurara separated from the crew of the Orihime. Stranded in the forest and with a long journey ahead the group must catch up with the ship and stay ahead of the princess that’s after them. Their journey towards the grand stream is filled with twists and turns and along the way they meet many shikigami and Kurara slowly starts to gain some of the memory’s lost back. But is it for the best that she remembers her past? 

While I think that the premise of the book is really interesting and that the blend of fantasy and asian culture is really well worked, for me the pacing really let the story down. For the first two hundred pages I felt that barely anything happened with the plot. Maybe this is because I personally like books that are full of action and that have the characters always on the move doing something to drive the plot forward but to me this book really didnt do it for me with the pacing.

Towards the end of the book there is alot more happening which does redeime the book partially but still the pacing just felt off. 

Another aspect of the book that I didnt overly love were the characters themselves. To me they felt very one dimensional and flat and I would have liked it if there was more depth to them. That's not to say all of the characters were like this Tomoes whitty remarks definitely lend themselves to making the book more enjoyable and the princess is someone you hate from the beginning.

Overall I would give this book three out of five stars as while personally I didnt gel with it the way I thought I would when first starting to read it, I can see the appeal and if the third book is more like the second half of this book then it would make up for the disappointing first half.