ngl, I skimmed through a lot of this.

I read the first one last year and found it to be a very uncomfortable experience but I didn't hate it.

So I bought the second one and put off reading it for about a year. Aannnddd I'm underwhelmed. But I will say its likely because I don't remember a lot of the end of the first book. I dont understand how Damen went from getting whipped to lusting after Laurent.

This one was definitely a lot less disturbing than the first. There was a whole lot more political intrigue. That was fun.
The battle scenes were confusingly written. And some scenes seemed to jump around or repeat themselves and have different outcomes-- at one point Damen and Laurent go to meet with some mountain clanswomen and Damen has sex with a few of them (which is totally normal and realistic ya know?) and then the next time they meet the head clanswoman and she's like "ayy Damen join in on our orgy" Laurent freaks out like he didn't give Damen permission to sex up a bunch of women a few pages before??? idk

Overall I didnt hate it and I'm even intrigued enough to buy the third so