In the Wake of the Ruined – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: In the Wake of the Ruined (The Siren Mage, #2)

Author: Kalie Cassidy

Pages: 432

Format: ebook (Libby)

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Series

The realm has a new queen… and a new monster.

Imogen can no longer hide. She has claimed her ancestral crown, and now the corrupted bond she shares with the ancient deity Eusia is stronger than ever. Though she is determined to sever it, doing so is no easy feat. The threat of war looms. Shifting alliances, a hunger for magic, and her feelings for Theodore, King of Varya, attempt to thwart her at every turn.

Meanwhile, Theodore is battling the strain of his own crown and commitments. When Imogen suddenly appears on his ship, every dutiful resolution he’s ever made threatens to snap. As they draw nearer to ending Eusia, lurking dangers and their perilous desire for one another prove more insurmountable than they could have imagined.

Will the chaos, ruin, and death that Imogen was prophesied to usher into the realm be the end of all things, or the beginning?

Content Warning: death, violence

+~ I was eager to read this sequel after enjoying book one. Imogen has to find Eusia and end her for good, but to find her she needs help. She’s also looking for her friend Agatha. Theodore is about to marry someone else, a political marriage with Halla, to keep the peace. Though I understood Theo’s duty, I did not like him marrying someone else other than Imogen.

+ Imogen is afraid that her monster will hurt people she loves so she tries to stay away but she needs help to find Agatha and kill Eusia. She gets Lachlan to help her since he loves Agatha. And Imogen has to ask Halla for help to take down Eusia – but can she trust her? I didn’t like Halla but I could see how Imogen didn’t have much options.

~ As much as I loved Imogen and Theo in book one, I really hated him needing to marry Halla. I don’t care if it was just a half-marriage and they weren’t bonded. Imogen has to be around them and they even have spicy scenes while he is married. I get it’s a political marriage but it still felt wrong – even though Theo yearns for Imogen so badly and has some pretty words expressing his feelings. I hated the back and forth between them.

+~ There are a few betrayals in this book which I did enjoy but I felt like even though goals are met at the end, everything felt dark even when Theo and Imogen get their happy ending. I did like how the story touched on the complicated relationships with mothers, but overall it really felt like a sad story.

Final Thoughts:

This one was just okay mostly because I didn’t love the romance, and that’s what I did love in book one and made me want to keep reading the duology. I felt like most of the loose ends were tied up but I thought it was interesting how they kind of left Halla with a magic book and her anger. Will there be more books in this world? I feel like there could be.

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