Twisted Loyalties by Barbara J. Webb is a visceral and intriguing sequel to the first book in the series. What I enjoyed the most is how the story begins quietly but quickly delves into the relationship between Korin and Adan, how they interact with each other, the secrets both keep from the other out of protectiveness and the intrigues around them.
I really like that we get Adan’s point of view in this book. It fills out the story and allows us to understand more about the world and the Knights. The twists and turns, the way magic works are riveting. I found it absorbing the interactions between Korin and the knife. The ending was absolutely a surprise.
If you like fantasy with gay romance, I highly recommend this series. Not only is the story visceral and intriguing, but the relationship is well written with beautiful love scenes. The intrigue is spectacular and the magic is unique. I can’t wait for the next novel.

I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first in the series. It's an interesting world with interesting characters, and I'll be very much looking forward to seeing what happens in book three. The author has set up a lot of (appropriately enough) twisty situations, and if she pulls off the landing, this should be a very successful series indeed.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

i received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review!

this got me to read the first one, which spoiled me immensely as it meant no cliff hanger, but now i have to wait for book 3??? such a cruel injustice, haha. i love getting to know adan and korin and their relationship, plus their individual ideals and problems. it was so interesting to see how they each essentially switched an aspect of their lives, even if it wasn’t entirely real for both of them one of my favorite things is that these two books have not been afraid to explore the intricacies of different sides and how there are never just 2/3 sides, there are gradients and going back and going forward. the same thing for states of mind. seeing how korin isn’t sure of anything and is actively trying to figure out what he wants to fight for. and his and adam’s romance is anything but an afterthought. no matter what it’s clear the two are crazy for each other, even if they aren’t together physically or in general. even when they are separated the narration reminds the reader of each of their feelings for the other and that’s honestly something that i feel is missing sometimes. this was such an interesting read and ive loved learning about how magic works in this world and how different and special it is

this review is spoiler free

This is the second book in the Knights of the Twisted Tree series. I gave the first book (review here) three stars, so you might wonder why I decided to pick up the sequel.

First off, I stand by my belief that a 3-star rating is still a solid read. I know opinions vary on this, but for me, 3 stars means it was good, though not without a few issues. A 4-star rating means it was great, with some minor flaws, and 5 stars are reserved for my absolute favorites.

Second, when I saw this on NetGalley, I could vividly remember almost everything from the first book—which is pretty impressive for a few reasons. But mainly because as a book blogger, I consume a lot of media, and most of it gets lost in the depths of my brain as soon as I finish reading it. But this one stayed with me.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it’s the strength of the worldbuilding that made it stick with me. I already gushed about it in my review of the first book, but it’s worth mentioning again. Also, these are relatively short books—the second one comes in at around 194 pages—but they don’t feel that short.

& in this one we get to see a more stronger connection form between Adan and Korin including more spice. However, the spice in this series is more on the mild side and I preferred it that way. I also noted in my review of the first book that it suffered form wierd/interesting word choices but this book didn’t seem to have that problem.

This one dives more into politics, expands the world, and gives us a closer look at the other wizards. That said, there’s definitely more secondhand embarrassment from Korin in this one—like, Korin, what are you even doing right now?!

Anyways, I’m honestly surprised by how much I’ve warmed up to this series—it’s quickly becoming a bit of a comfort read for me. I can’t recommend it enough if you’re on the hunt for a dark? cozy MM romantasy.

*blog post scheduled for Dec. 3rd*

Barbara J Webb does a strong sequel in Twisted Loyalties from the Knights of the Twisted Tree series, it had that element that I was hoping for from the first book. The characters felt like they continued to feel like this world and genre. I was invested in what was going on and was hooked from start to finish. I wanted to read more in this world and from Barbara J Webb.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for an E-ARC for review. I’m quite looking forward to reading this, and will definitely be reading the first in the series before it