ARC Review: Daughter of Lies and Ruin by Jo Spurrier

Title: Daughter of Lies and Ruin

Author: Jo Spurrier

Series: Tales of the Blackbone Witches #2

Genre: Fantasy/Magic/YA

Publisher: Voyager

Publication Date: September 1st, 2019

Edition: Kindle Edition, 257 pages

Source: NetGalley

Purchase/Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository

Synopsis:

   There's something strange brewing in this tinder-dry forest - a girl with a sword and a secret, a troupe of vicious bandits vanished without a trace, beasts that don't belong, and a witch with a macabre plan. Elodie hasn't been learning witchcraft for long, but she knows enough to be worried, and the fact that her mentor Aleida wants to pack up and leave in short order isn't helping to settle her nerves.

   Elodie just hopes to get everyone out of this mess unharmed, but it's looking more unlikely with every passing hour. And when the strange witch's ire falls on her, Aleida's wrath sparks a fire that threatens to scorch the earth itself. 

   I loved the heck out of the first book in this series, I have no idea how many books there are supposed to be and I can't find any information anywhere as to how many there'll be. While I enjoyed this book as well, I wasn't as fond of Dee's character as I was in the first book. Her character development felt like it took a bit of a step back. 

   She had less agency and spent a lot of the book reprimanding Aledia for all her choices, failing to see the bigger picture. Her naivete and narrow worldview caused more problems than resolved. Yes, she was correct that they should investigate the strange and concerning things happening, but the way Dee wanted to do things barely worked out most of the time, and most revolved around luck. 

   I enjoyed this book, but I felt that it had less focus than the first book in a lot of ways.  I would have liked to see Dee getting trained more, rather than a lot of standing around in the forest talking. I don't know, I just felt that the decision to get involved didn't really add anything to Dee and Aledia's story that much. They're no closer to breaking Aledia's curse than they were at the end of the first book. I just hope that there are more books and they actually make progress with that.

   This review is coming across a lot more negative than I feel for the book in general. I recommend this book and this series, they are fun reads and the magic is interesting, I just, again, wish that Dee had more training so that the magic could be explained with more detail.