SYNOPSIS

Simidele is now in deep waters serving Olokun to honor her promise- he did help take down Esu. She’s miserable, cold, missing Kola, land, and the other Mami Wata. A Mami Wata named Folasade comes to visit and sends word that Esu may actually be being held hostage by Olokun and has not reported back to Oldomare to be reprimanded for his past actions and continue his duty of taming the anti-gods. In Esu’s absence, ajogun soldiers have run rampant, slaying cities in the hopes of freeing the anti-gods. Now Simi must free Esu and work with him to stop the release of the anti-gods who will destroy the entire world if freed. What could possible happen?

RECAP AND REVIEW

This book is a mythology and fantasty book that uses African gods. There’s a forbidden romance and a journey to go along. This is the second book in the series. I’d recommend reading the first book before this one. Not much is recapped but aspects of the first book are referenced.

I liked how this book started and parts of the end battle, but it lost me a bit in the middle and really annoyed me at the end. After finishing the first book, I wasn’t sure that it needed a second and now that I’ve seen how it played out, I don’t think it did?

The flashbacks didn’t do it for me this book. We didn’t see too much of Esu or the twins. We got some cameos from people in the first book. It read like a reunion fighting against a common enemy, which I didn’t mind. However, all the big players in the first were nonexistent or just acted differently than the first.

Simi, in my opinion, has no character growth or development. She continues to not listen to the advice of the people around her and do whatever she wants. Sometimes the results are harmless. Sometimes they’re not. It felt unrealistic to me the way that Yemoja accepts that she’s just not going to follow rules cause Yemoja created her for an important purpose. Not everyone gets to be reborn and it seems like it’s a honor to serve a god. To just not serve your purpose and get carried away by a life she no longer lives as a person she no longer is annoys me. Simi goes past just reminiscing which is evident by the end of the book.

I get how important her memories, community, and family are to her. I get that she was taken from everything by slave owners and was brave enough to jump off the ship. I can’t imagine how traumatic that is. However, it is why the water takes their memories as Mami Wata, so they wouldn’t focus on their past. I even get why she reminisced so much in the first book. I just don’t understand it in this one. Maybe I’m heartless.

It’s interesting she’s able to just not fulfill her duties considering most of her cleanups were due to her own actions. Granted, Esu might’ve taken over in the first book if Kola was not rescued, but that’s a conversation for another day.

I didn’t find Olokun to be as horrible as they tried to make him out to be. He’s definitely unhappy and intimidating, but who wouldn’t be chained under the sea. He still does his duty in taking care of the dead. All he wants is to be heard and free and I honestly don’t blame him for his methods. Simi is justifiably unhappy with her situation, but it’s unfair to me to blame that on Olokun when she made her own choices. Even in this book, he continues to help her and she disregards him. Never says thank you and rarely credits him for his help.

I love romance but Simi and Kola fell a little flat to me in this one. I don’t mind instalove, but I don’t think it works between the two of them as time goes on. She yearns for him and he seems to care for her and yet they barely speak or interact. The chemistry was lacking despite how much they wanted but couldn’t be together. The way she walked away in the first book made sense. How things turned out in this one actually made me upset. We spent all of this time and there was a death for what?

OVERALL

Overall, I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the first one and there were scenes I liked reading out of this book, but as a whole, plot wise, it didn’t do it for me. I have been in a reading slump so it could have affected how I interpreted the plot, but I also don’t like Simi as a character and I think she gets off too easily. And I really didn’t like how it ended and who sacrificed to make it happen. The writing and visuals were done well though. I’d recommend reading this book if you’ve read the first to see other opinions. I wouldn’t read the first book with this in mind though, like I would recommend with the Legendborn series.