ARC Review--The Empress by S.J. Kincaid

It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite.

But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it?

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

The Empress is the highly anticipated sequel to S.J. Kincaid’s The Diabolic and what a whirlwind of read that was! It has the same high stakes and fast paced plot that will leave your head spinning by the end! I was once again a little befuddled with some of the worldviews, the space, the politics, all that new vocabulary. But as I was expecting it this time, it wasn’t as hard to get through.

Nemesis and Tyrus have their work cut out for them. Many of Tyrus’ subjects still oppose to having a Diabolic as an empress. She’s fights off numerous assassination attempts every week. The most pressing problem is their enemies and how relentless they are in their attempts to overthrow Tyrus’ reign. But Pasus has other plans in mind. Political intrigue takes over much of the plot in this one. Backstabbing and plotting are all over the place. Tyrus and Nemesis know they will need more help on their side if they ever hope to be rid of Pasus once and for all. So they leave to go find the Interdict and hope that he may grant Nemesis personhood in hopes of quelling the protests of a Diabolic married to the emperor.

Naturally, things don’t go as planned. There was a lot more going on in this one than we saw in the previous book, at least I thought so. And this one is even shorter than its predecessor! Yet it’s jam packed with so many twists and turns! Seriously, I feel as if I might have reader’s whiplash! But in a weird way, it was kind of thrilling!

True, I suffered from bouts of confusion again. We get deeper into the politics in this one. I have never been a fan of politics in any scope, so you can imagine how trying it was for me to get through some of these moments. Then add in some time-warp traveling or whatnot and you can pretty much color me confused in some parts of this one. Despite all that though, I did still really like this one. Outside of the politics portion, you once again have these amazing characters that you watch grown and change and totally surprise you in so many ways!

This book had its surprises too! Though I won’t get into that! But just know that the last quarter of the book or so was chock full of them! Every time I thought Kincaid had me shock, she would proceed to shock me further! It was unreal!

One thing I did notice that was missing was the romance between Tyrus and Nemesis. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not totally gone. But with all the chaos that surrounds them, finding time for a romantic interlude was a lot harder than you’d think! The stolen moments were sweet though. But I kind of missed “them” overall. It was like they hardly had time to be together together anymore. And yes, I meant the double phrase there! Spell check did not like that either!

I found that The Empress was a very character driven novel as was The Diabolic. While things may get overly complicated plot wise, I find I still love and hate these characters. I won’t get into where they all fall under. But they are still very real, very complicated people.

Reading The Empress totally spun my head all around! I have no idea what to expect next! Just when I thought I had things figured out, Kincaid surprises me once again! If you were a fan at all of The Diabolic, I highly recommend continuing the story! The wait for the next book very well might be disastrous! I’ll just let you think on that.


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars—again with the minor takedown on rating. Still a GOOD read! Slightly better than good even! But all the politics and added time leaps kind of spun my head in the wrong direction. Not the good head spin I’ll tell you. Still it was a most fascinating read and I look forward to the conclusion!


The Empress releases October 31, 2017