This was fun! Sure, I did request the book and then discovered that it’s the second in a series and I had not read the first one. But thought, feck it, I can totally dig in and see how goes.

Imagine my achy-breaky heart bursting with joy when I saw that author had included a ‘Story So Far’ to kick off the sequel. ‘Story So Far’ is my favourite addition to sequels. Thank you authors who do this!

What can I say without spoiling this book and its predecessor?

While I felt like I was able to enjoy TTFQ without having any prior insight, I would be inclined to take a dive into the first book anyway. The author has a knack for building on momentum and I believe that the intricate world, characters and political and otherwise struggles are so vast that I hardly got the rounded be all- end all of it. In fact, TTFQ, once it started, felt like it was on a course for disaster for some of our characters with conflicts and mysteries piling up and with hardly any time to take a breath. One simply cannot stop reading because the loose ends are many and there shall be answers, dammit!

You know what? I’m going to admit this. I might as well… I am somewhat glad I failed to be aware of book 1. Without previously sampling the author’s style, the world and setting we’re in, the characters and the various elements, I feel like I personally gained a whole lot of ‘hot damn’ moments out of TTFQ. I simply didn’t know what to expect and boy, oh boy, was a figuratively slapped in the face with awe-inspiring revelations chapter by chapter.

You need to know that the characters are all of them intriguing, making you want to know more. They are entirely human and we’ll, maybe a bit more than just human *taps nose

You’ll want to know that the world and political intrigue and the, can I say, fractions that the author has created are entirely ripe and multiple and serve a purpose.

You’ll want to know that the story flows and rolls like an avalanche. Taking you to scenes and moments of stillness, grandeur, amusement, flourish, quiet comprehension.

The magic in this book, I wouldn’t probably call magic. It’s more like… Oh! I know how to explain and some of you will roll your eyes so hard at this, you’re risking an eyeball muscle strain. So… Seen Twilight movies? You know the way the vamps have powers there to either make you see things or feel things or create a protective shield? Yeah. That.

Anyway! Moving on.

The final thing I wish to mention. The thing that rounded the whole book up for me, made it beautiful, worthwhile, wholesome… The crux of it all: family. I wish I could explain how the book felt relevant in this. I’ll try. Have you ever experienced that moment when you realize that you’ve stepped over that invisible line that separated the vision you had of your close family through the eyes of a child, and now you see, maybe even without wanting to see it, admit it, that the people you always, hand on heart, thought were the fairest, most honest, never do wrong kind of people, are in fact, well, utterly full of shit and even though you still love them and would do anything for them, you will take anything they say with a pinch of salt and perhaps, sadly, respect them a little less? Well. The Two-Faced Queen made me think such thoughts.

Final- final thing you’ll want to know, is that this book, this series in fact I feel I can safely assume, has some of you’re favourite fantasy elements. Such as: assassins, serial killers, royalty, a fully formed society, revenge, redemption, lovelovelove (love is the root of all troubles, after all!), immortality, altogether faulty and far from perfect characters to battle for your favour…and … who knows what other mystical beasts

Michael is back - he's a king killer, or at least branded as one, part of Orbis company and practically enemy of Hollow number one. The sequel to the Kingdom of Liars has more Fabrications, more action, more spectucular fights and a lot more holes in memory. It's a sequel that sets up the rest of the playing pieces, expands the world and teases at what the rest of the series might bring.

In short, the Princess is back and she wants Michael's blood for 'killing the king' but she cuts Dark and Michael a deal: stop the Wayfarer Assassin and the Heartbreaker Serial Killer and she'll give Micheal a chance to prove himself innocent. Meanwhile, Domet isn't finished with his for what happened to the Shrine of Patron Victoria. The Heartbreaker Serial Killer is back to finish business with Naomi and her father and Gwen has a mysterious job. Tie that with Dark and Angelo's mysterious past, a first look at other magic from around the world and a plot that spans lifetimes, then you've only touched the surface of the Two-Faced Queen. I've just got one damned question, who broke Celona, Nick? Who did it?

One thing I loved about this book - even if it didn't totally go the way I expected - was finding out more about Dark and his ability to wield multiple magics. The way Nick expands and teases the different magics of the world outside of Hollow had me gripped once more. I love the fact that each one seems to have a very extreme price. Fabrications continues to be a blight on plot clarity, in a very intentional and good way. Where there's holes galore. The only thing that didn't quite mesh with me here was the origin of Dark's magic. I kind of thought it would be different, but this way is great as well. Just caught me off guard.

The plot here introduced some great characters and practically threw in a load of other organisations with differing motivations, set up a load of enemies and was generally a movement of pieces - the ending left me stunned. I seriously was like WHAT, NO! and I love that throughout I can see that Nick is influenced by manga and love the series more for it.

The prose is magnificent. I seriously can't fault it - Nick writes with clarity whilst painting a vividly realised scene. The places you go are quite beautiful and pick up all the right sensual notes. It is so realised, a painting that weaves and wends through your mind. I love the word choice, I'm still a huge fan of Michael's voice. It's there, a movie in your mind with or without an audiobook. The pages speak to you.

If you loved the first, don't let it end there. We need to see Michael's story to the end! Don't wait for the rest to come out, dive in now. A series you love isn't worth the wait. This is everything epic fantasy should be and promises to be a lot more

Thank you Gollancz and Orion Publishing Group for giving me an advance review copy of The Two-Faced Queen! I have been provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found The Kingdom of Liars a solid fantasy debut with intriguing world-building and strong storytelling. The ending of Kingdom of Liars teased this book's titular character's growing involvement in the story, and that got me even more excited to pick up Two-Faced Queen.

The Two-Faced Queen continues Michael Kingsman's story where it last left off: alive, but now an apprentice mercenary to the mysterious Dark while still trying to restore his family name. Further complicating matters, however, Hollow is struck by an assassin and a thought long-gone serial killer on the loose. As Michael and Dark attempt to unravel the mysterious murders, Michael finds himself not only having to regain the trust of those he cares for, but also having to grapple with several shocking truths from Hollow's history. The worldbuilding undergoes a massive expansion, and the world Martell constructed continues to grow richer in its awe-inspiring span.

Michael's narration, his thoughts and feelings continue to be intertwined with his understanding and views of the world around him. He knows things, but there are also times where he stumbles in confusion and uncertainty, worrying that he would someday make a fatal mistake. Martell isn't afraid to throw both Michael (and us readers, who are learning things along with him) into uncertain, confusing, and risky situations and I have to applaud this about his storytelling. It shines more light to this aspect of Michael as a character which makes him all the more human.

Michael is a changed person compared to his persona in Kingdom of Liars, but we readers the only ones so far to know that ;) In fact, Michael not only still has to deal with the general distrust the city of Hollow has for him, but he's also crossed some potentially dangerous people in his previous self-centred exploits. Chief among them is the Princess Serena Hollow, heir to the throne and the royal with a deep, yet strained bond with Michael. With Serena's introduction as the titular Two-Faced Queen, Martell expands his cast as well as giving greater focus to his already existing ones (notably Naomi and Trey). It was refreshing to see that not just Michael, but all the other characters are also portrayed as humanly as Michael is. They stumble, they hurt, and they bleed all the same and it makes everyone involved such a compelling cast. I can definitely see this series being adapted for TV and I would gladly binge-watch the series to see any of them.
(Although I will say that I wish Serena had been featured a lot more given that this is technically her book)

Martell significantly pumps up the suspense (naturally, given the serial killer arc) in The Two-Faced Queen. There are many twists and turns in the story, and more of Dark's mysterious past revealed to be a lot more important to the overarching narrative. Furthermore, Michael's growing use of Fabrications also begin to take its toll on his memory, his narration beginning to have more widening gaps. I loved how this injected a sense of paranoia probing at the fear of losing important information that you might not be able to ever recover — adding to the growing suspense in the book. As exciting as this book was, however, it all becomes too much at some point (I think momentarily my brain shut down) and going through the book can be a slog given the onslaught of information/events/twists, which is why I wouldn't really recommend reading this book in one sitting (rather, read it in bite-able chunks).

Martell also takes the opportunity to showcase his veracity in his storytelling: his combat scenes are raw, quick, and brutal. There's not much waiting for the enemy to mess up, and there's more visceral, bloody, and painful strikes which his characters take the brunt for. Somehow this is reminiscent of Anna Stephens's approach to combat battles in her Godblind series.

The Two-Faced Queen concludes its whirlwind of a story with more conflicts to come, more mistakes (and dread for their consequences), and a promise for an exciting adventure as Martell prepares to expand his story beyond Hollow's walls. It is definitely a much wilder ride compared to its predecessor, and Martell's dropped one too many explosive revelations for me to be able to tell the direction this series is going.

All in all, though, Martell's The Two-Faced Queen is a strong follow up expanding on his storytelling strengths: compelling characters and narratives; and strong, evocative world-building that only continues to grow richer as it expands its scope.