Red Tigress

Title: Red Tigress
Author: Amélie Wen Zhao
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Year: March 2021
Pages: 425
Series: Blood Heir Trilogy #2
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Reading Time: 15 - 29 Mar
Binding: Illumicrate Hardback
Goodreads

Stars:
★★★★☆

Blurb:

 Ana Mikhailov is the only surviving of the member of the royal family of Cyrilia.

 She has no army, no title, and no allies, and now she must find a way to take back the throne or risk the brutal retribution of Empress Morganya.

 After years of ruthless oppression of the Affinites - those with the power and magic to control the world around them - under the old empire, the empress is determined to establish a new world order, no matter what the cost. Ana is certain that Morganya won't stop until she has murdered every single non-Affinite in the land.

 Ana's only chance of navigating the dangerous world of her homeland is to partner with Ramson Quicktongue once again. But the cunning crime lord has schemes of his own. For Ana to find an army and make a new future for her kingdom, one without bloodshed and oppression, they must cross the Whitewaves to the impenetrable stone forts of Bregon. Only, no one ban be certain what they will find there.

 A dark power has risen. Will revolution bring peace - or will it only paint the streets in more blood...

Review:

 I was excited to come back to the Blood Heir world after the read-a-long last month, we're left on a nice little cliff hanger after the last book so I expected to come in to some mad rushing as they flee from the scene. I daresay I found the beginning a little slow despite there actually being a lot going on and a fair bit of action. maybe I was just busy and ending up putting it down too often.

 Ana has had her eyes opened to a lot of what was wrong with her kingdom in the past but there is still a fair bit of naivety in her character. She sees hope very quickly and it does not take a lot to manipulate her, she needs to spend a little more time with Ramson to wipe that away. She continues to improve her understanding of things in her world, you'll see what I mean about half way through. Ana's power as a blood Affinite is not to be underestimated and we'll get a little more than her just throwing people backwards Merlin-style.

 Ramson, sweet Ramson. I feel for him in this book. Forced to head back to his home with enemies at every turn and friends he's reluctant to stick around for. His family is. . . very interesting. A fantastic new character introduction but I'm officially sick of the verb 'shrieked', no one shrieks and cries and laughs at every sentence. If they did they would have been killed already. It's a wrestle of Ramson's conscience and his family is even more brutal than was let on in the previous book.

 Linn is a bigger character than I really think was shown in the prior book, she was introduced far too late out of nowhere and feels like a bit of an afterthought now given a much larger role. It's bringing another layer to the world building which is wonderful and just mere hints of romance but this series so far is a bit lacking in that area. Her new accomplice is one you can easily work out from the previous book but that can certainly cause a few problems in the trust of our characters all together.

 So. . . we're expanding in this world. We got a really good picture of Ana's kingdom and the issues experienced by the people in Blood Heir and we're finally escaping to Bregon which we only saw through Ramson's memories. Here we're not just adding another country and set of characters to join the fight. There's more plot, more action and scheming and death. Oh, glorious!

 There is going to be a lot to cover in the final book of the Blood Heir trilogy. It's gonna be a big build up to those final chapters and I. Am. Excited.