Book Review: Glass Sword

Note: If you haven’t read Red Queen yet and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read this review.

Synopsis from Amazon:

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.

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?

*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2016 Reading Challenge.*

Honestly I wasn’t a big fan of Red Queen. There’s a long list of reasons why I didn’t like but the main one is I thought it was too predictable.

Well, Glass Sword threw me for a loop and I loved every second of it. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and Victoria Aveyard made me cry and get so angry multiple times. I just wasn’t prepared for the emotional roller coaster that was this book and I don’t know how I’ll be able to wait a year for the next book.

Glass Sword picks up right where Red Queen left off. The Scarlet Guard, along with Mare and Cal, are running from Maven, the new king. Once they escape Mare knows Maven won’t stop until he kills her and Cal and although Mare wants to trust Cal she also fears she can never trust anyone ever again.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers so I don’t want to give too much of the plot away. What I will say is I liked Mare a lot more in this book and I don’t know what that says about me. In the first book Mare just seemed very whiny and naive to me. In this book, Mare is hardened. She’s been through the ringer with Maven and his mother and she’s not going to let her guard down for anyone ever again.

I loved seeing Mare be kind of ruthless and cut throat. She didn’t back down from what she wanted and although she definitely made mistakes in this novel I also respected that she made her own choices, whether they were wrong or right. Mare’s done being controlled in this novel and I liked that a lot.

What really made me love and hate this book though was the last hundred pages or so. Everything just spiraled out of control and I didn’t know who to trust or what would happen next. And then the ending! Unbelievable! I love a book that catches me off guard and Glass Sword definitely did. I didn’t know how this book would end but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to end the way it did. Amazing!

Honestly, if you’re like me and you didn’t like Red Queen I urge you to read Glass Sword anyway. It’s really good and much better than Red Queen in my opinion. Also, Cal and Shade are everything to me and I just have a lot of feelings about them. That is all.

Borrow or Buy: Buy this book so you can reread it and cry over it over and over again until you run out of tears. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Stars: