After the weird pacing of The Stormbringer, I was wondering what I'd get with The Nightborn. The queer-normative fantasy world is interesting enough that I was willing to give it a second shot and I'm glad I did.


The Nightborn follows another Sentinel, Branwyn, as she pretends to be a diplomat and travels to Heliodar to secure aid in the fight against The Big Bad. There she meets Zelen, a young member of the High Council. The plot is a mix of political maneuvering, family evils and battle. I found that melange compelling, but the romance was also much more present and evenly distributed than in the first book. This is exactly what I want from fantasy romance.


Audio notes: This dual-POV series is narrated by Australian Katherine Littrell and though she's doing all the voices and points-of-view, she's successful at pulling out the full range of emotions and the battle scenes are pretty great.


***

Content Warnings: lots of violence, emotionally abusive/manipulative family, magic violence/demon stuff

I received an audio review copy of this book from the publisher. ( )