Review--Kingdom of Claw by Demi Winters

 

Return to the Kingdom of Íseldur, where enemies become lovers and dark secrets hide around each corner, the second novel in the Ashen series.

In the aftermath of a harrowing journey, Silla Nordvig’s dreams of a simple life have been shattered. Beaten, betrayed, and reeling from the revelation of her true name, she flees Kopa with Reynir Galtung, ruthless leader of the Bloodaxe Crew. But when they're forced into hiding together, Silla soon discovers that Rey has been keeping secrets of his own.

Stuck in a shield-home with the murderous man she thought she knew, Silla forms a new master the magic flowing through her veins to save her sister. But before she can do that, Silla must face her most formidable opponent yet—her own inner demons.

Saga Volsik has nothing to lose. They’ve murdered her family. Stolen her throne. And now they expect her to marry their son, but not if she can dismantle Queen Signe’s plans first. The only problem? The handsome Zagadkian dignitary who knows far too many of her secrets.

Silla and Saga will need to find the strength to step into their destiny and stop chaos from sweeping across the land. Meanwhile, dark threads continue to weave themselves through Íseldur as magic long thought dead begins to wake.

Diving into Demi Winters' Kingdom of Claw was relatively easy since I had just finished The Road of Bones. This is definitely one of those highly detailed fantasy reads where you are immersed in a very creative world, rich with cultural, mythology, magic...where it doesn't hurt to take a few notes! Lol.

Our points of view this time are Silla, Rey, Saga, and the occasional Jonas. Largely I felt like this was Saga's book as we get to finally know this sister of Silla's who we only just learned about towards the end of the first book. Saga was raised by the Queen and King who murdered her parents, and who she thought was her younger sister. Saga also has galdur; she can read people's thoughts they are actively thinking. She managed to keep this a secret because her powers came in later than usual. She's doing everything she can to thwart Signe's plans to harm Silla.

Meanwhile Silla and Rey return to his hometown where Silla is to learn how to wield her own galdur. There she and Rey begin to grow closer and learn more about one another, such as the secret Rey was harboring the entire first book.

Naturally, we again have a bit of a slower pace going on. But we are definitely building into something more. Granted, I feel like some things could have been tightened in some areas, but I can see why things were kept...mostly. There's a lot of character development and growth going on in these moments, so it does add to the story...it just takes time.

I was intrigued the most by Jonas' point of view chapters. Mainly, because I wanted to know what that man was thinking! And naturally, his anger is being driven by grief and while I can sympathize to a point, I feel like he's going about things the wrong way. I was still peeved with Jonas for what he did in the first book. What I sort of detest most is being built up to really like a character one book and then to have that ripped away by the next. It's not that I am berating the author on this, it's just a personal thing. To have trust broken so quickly aggravates me, I don't know if it would've been worse if it happened later down the line in the series or not because then the hit would really burn, but I digress.

Saga proved to be an intriguing character! I loved her chapters as I loved her interactions with a Zagadkian dignitary, Rurik, who is visiting the king and queen to negotiate deals for supplies for their peoples on both ends. There is definitely some kind of tension brewing between these two and I love Rurik's easygoing nature. Saga has lived a difficult life being raised by the people who murdered her family, that she was kept alive was confounding and I might have missed the reasoning behind this, but ultimately chocked it up to Signe's plans.

There was romance developing between Silla and Rey. Which I saw this coming in the first book when we got Rey's point of view. But I did enjoy that the relationship still took time to build. It didn't feel as "why not" like Silla and Jonas' getting together did. I mean, theirs was sort of formed out of boredom. Sill and Rey grow intimately closer in this one and we get more on Rey's background too. 

Some shocking surprises came in at the end of this one that will really shake things up for the next book. Sadly, we did not get to see the Bloodaxe crew but I am planning on diving into the novella next that will give us insight to their adventures during all this chaos! I'm hoping there's a reunion in the third book, but time will tell on that one.

All in all, Kingdom of Claw was yet another immersive fantasy read set in The Ashen series. This is not a series for the faint of heart. It's heavy, but enjoyable if you get over a few of the speedbumps. If you love a thoroughly developed fantasy read, this is a series I would urge you to check out!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars