DNF at 35%

Continuing on from Silver Under Nightfall, Remy Pendergast is travelling with his companions Lord Zidan Malekh and Lady Xiaodan Song after their recent fight with the Night Empress. On their way to the Court of Wanderers to try and save a severely injured Xiadon, it’s clear this journey isn’t going to as quick as it needs to be, and some secrets are just dying to be revealed.

I absolutely loved Chupeco’s The Bone Witch series, so I knew I’d enjoy their writing style, and Silver Under Nightfall left me wanting more. Yet this didn’t deliver. I kept waiting for it to get good, for something interesting enough to hold my attention, and whilst bits did happen, it wasn’t enough for me to keep reading.

There was so much just dumped on the reader in these great big massive chunks, and some things from the first book seemed resolved so early on that this didn’t help me cling to the desperation that it would pick up soon. It was so slow in places I could have skipped pages and it wouldn’t have made a difference, and not only that, but the pacing is neither here nor there, it’s so inconsistent.

It’s such a shame this one was a DNF, and I don’t think I’ll come back to it to attempt to finish it just to see what else happens.



Did I like the book? I wanted to in the beginning.

Did I love it? No. Far from it.

Would I recommend it? No. Unless you can forgive extremely slow pacing and lots of info dumping. Maybe.

Sadly this was a bit of a disappointment. There were a few issues with the previous book, but not nearly so many as in this one. Even if you discounted all the odd quirks of English they have somehow incorporated (eg. people making landfall from... land, and somehow Xiaodan's eyes being a singular eye and many other oddities) the weird pacing and tedious court/political drama made this a bit of a slog. Also I have grown to dislike all the characters apart from maybe Elke. I hate the whole puppy trope, I think the boring yet frequent sex was unnecessary and some of the plot just didn't make any sense. How is there a whole cave temple under a lake that take a few minutes to swim down to, yet people come and go easily and don't seem to ever get wet? How did Remy et al end up on a tiny island by magic? How did Rin manage to write the most un-mysterious locked room style mystery ever? The big reveal was just kind of dull.
I would definitely try another book by them, but I'd hope for better editing for language and pacing. And either leave the sex out, or make it more fun and relevant.

This is Remys book, although the trio are just perfect together. This instalment has more sex (fade to black) with innuendos sprinkled everywhere.
I enjoyed the unravelling of family secrets, the navigating of the various vampire courts, murder mysteries and mutation slaying.
A special mention needs to go out to vampire pigeons. The book is pure entertainment with wit and blood.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

This book was so fun, I havent read a great vampire related fantasy series in ages. I love the representation and diversity in this book.

The adventure and action was brilliant, I didnt know where this story would go but god I loved the ending.

I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Frick.

This was one of my most anticipated releases, seeing as I loved loved loved Silver Under Nightfall.

Court of Wanderers however did not live up to that hype. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely parts of the book that were as good, if not better, than the first.

The first 200 pages were a frigging drag though. It felt like nothing was happening, except for some info dumping every now and then, and Remy, Xiaodan and Malekh moving around and settling for a while to bang, before doing the same thing all over again. There were some major events happening within those first 200 pages, but those were swept over within 20 pages? Safe to say, I was disappointed.

The last 250 or so pages were good though, like I remember Silver Under Nightfall being. Action-packed scenes interweaved with politics, just how I wanted this whole book to be.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending though, it felt so random SPOILER FOR THE END OF THE BOOK for Dr. Yost to show up at the end? He barely went mentioned throughout this whole book, except for referring to his mutations, and then he shows up and leaves Lord Pendergast unable to control them. SPOILER OVER Just felt like a frigging cop-out.

I still love my vampire and human trio, but unfortunately I did not love the rest of this book.

Bound by fate, united by darkness. A vampire hunter and his unexpected vampiric royal companions are on the road through the kingdom after a battle against the formidable enemy. All severely injured and powerless, causes the trio to seek refuge un the Court of Wanderers. Remy must confront his strange dreams of the Night Empress, a women he has long suspected to be his own mother. As family secrets unravel, they all must face heart-wrenching choices between legacies and their destiny.

Disguised as a human familiar to his vampiric royal companions, Remi naviaged the vampire courts and a series of gruesome murders. All the while the trio’s unbreakable nine id tested as they unlock new powers and each revelation exacts a new devastating toll. The cost of power may prove too high in this thrilling tale of love, betrayal and supernatural warfare.

This book makes falling into a vampire world feel almost effortless, and you’ll happily fall sway under a vampires influence. Beautiful written with a dark and gritty atmosphere that does the vampire fantasy genre novel justice. Maybe a tad slower in pace than it’s forebearer but this plot is steeped in mystery and desire. These characters grow stronger and closer than ever before with a nuance that feels real and imagined by the writer. An excellent vampire novel with royal intrigue, gruesome murders and romantic rendezvous.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘏𝘰𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘳 & 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘙𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘰

The conclusion of the duology sees Remy, Xiaodan and Zidan meeting with the other heads of the vampire courts to try and defeat the Night Empress - who was revealed to be Remy's long believed dead mother. The politics between the courts plays out against Lord Penderghast (Remy's father) bringing an army of Reapers (Vampire hunters) alongside altered mutations which answer to him - or do they..? The relationship between Remy and the 2 vampires deepens and there are a lot of moments that are quite sweet when they're supporting each other in their various states of distress and injury. There are also quite a lot of pretty filthy bits of dialogue between them which is a bit jarring at times as the steamy scenes are off page but then you're dragged back into being reminded they've got a very healthy sex life between the thrupple! I thought this was a good ending to the duology, I did prefer book 1 as I liked seeing Remy come out of the shadow of his father and start to live in a way he was happy with, but his arc in book 2 was great. It was also good to see supporting characters such as Elke, Eugenie, Paolo and Riones back and expanding their roles more. I'm sad to be out of this world now its over which is always a good sign!

4.5 for me in particular, probably 3.5 for most readers (vampire/vampire hunter dynamics and court politics are my book kryptonite.)
Right off the bat I think this series suffers from being a duology, both SUN and CoW start by slowly immersing you into the world and then take off at a breakneck speed in the last hundred pages. I was getting invested in the intrigue of the courts but looking at the percentage left in the book I was going how the hell is this going to wrap up? And wrap up it did! I got what I wanted from this book, I love the little ensemble and the main trio but greedily I still want more. Even from a marketing stand point, I had heard that it was a duology but I was so sure that would change especially with the covers having Remy and Malekh on them that a third with Xiaodan seemed inevitable but it seems like I'll have to bury that dream. I think this series has really interesting worldbuilding, I loved the lore, politics and a cast of characters that could develop even further but in it's current state I'm satisfied with the conclusion and I'm the sort of reader who'll happily play around in the author's sandbox with the tools they've left behind.

(Content warnings: explicit sexual content, blood, violence, murder, moderate body horror and gore)

I hate to say this, as I honestly loved the first book, but Court of Wanderers did not live up to my expectations :(

The ending of Silver Under Nightfall is a great cliffhanger, leaving you with so many questions, so much tension between Remy, Xiaodan and Malekh - only for most of it to be easily resolved at the very beginning of this book, giving you little incentive to read onwards.

There isn't much of the mystery of book 1, with the focus instead placed more firmly on steamy romance and courtly intrigue - except the intrigue was rarely intriguing, and the romance lost a lot of its appeal to me when I realized the characters have become flat, predictable cutouts, any and all character development seemingly one and done after SiN. (If you're expecting some interesting, messy conflicts and friction between the trio, some further fleshing out of their flaws - not a wild hope to have in a "dark fantasy" book, I think - then bad luck.)

The very uneven pacing also made it a slog to get through, and the fight scenes that could've breathed some much-needed life into the plot felt bland and repetitive, especially in comparison to how incredibly memorable and hair-raising the fights in SiN were.

Overall, I'm afraid Court of Wanderers just lacks the charm of the first book - it felt more like reading mediocre fanfiction than a published sequel.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Ever since I read Silver Under Nightfall back in 2022, I have been recommending it to everyone because it's so good and deserves so much more hype.
I mean, epic vampire fantasy, a poly relationship, and sci-fi elements? It's just all so cool.
So, of course, I was really excited for the sequel, and while I prefer book 1, I did have a good time with Court of Wanderers as well.

I really loved that the book expanded on the world and that we met different players. However, it did get a bit lost in the politics. To me, it felt a bit convoluted and there were some parts where I was close to being bored.
It helped that there were quite a lot of spicy scenes mixed in, though they were mostly fade to black, they help elevate the mood a bit for me.

I still love Xiaodan and Zidan; they're the best and definitely my favorite part of the book. Remy is okay. I like him, but he annoyed me at times. The tension between him and Zidan was so good, though! I would have wanted a bit more relationship development, to me, it didn't feel like much depth was added here.

The ending felt a bit anticlimactic and rushed to me. We had such a long build-up, and then it all was resolved kind of quickly. I also would have wanted more emotional moments toward the end or a longer epilogue.

Overall, this was a decent sequel, and I enjoyed it for the most part, but honestly, I feel like Silver Under Nightfall could have been written as a standalone. I still recommend this duology and stand by what I said about it deserving more hype, but book 1 was a book I wholeheartedly recommended, while book 2 is more like "read it to finish the duology but if you don't it's also fine".

I still really enjoyed this book but found the pacing was much slower than Silver Under Nightfall. I think with all the action scenes that were in this book, the relationship between Remy, Malekh and Xiadan felt slightly ignored but overall, this duology was beautifully written and I love how it’s finished. This will be one of my top duologies I think. 3.75 stars overall 💙

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me 20% in, I don’t usually DNF books.

I think the author is a talented writer however the book didnt grip me quickly enough for me to want to keep reading and I found I struggled to remember what had happened after I put the book down each time.

Just because this book wasn’t for me, doesn’t mean somebody else won’t love it. My 3 stars is mainly for the authors writing as opposed to the book itself

Silver Under Nightfall was one of my favourite reads of 2023 and I was excited to be back with our favourite thruple Remy, Malekh and Xiordan. The first book had a lot more enemies to lovers vibes and tension whereas this was a lot sexier! With mostly fade to black scenes but so much more innuendos and sex happening, almost at ridiculous times while telling us a lot of plot and World building. Some of it felt a bit eyeroll and Remy was a big bit dense at times.

Remy is having nightmares about The Night Empress and has discovered he may carry a bloodline, fearing turning into a monster. Remy’s Dad plays a much bigger role in this book which I enjoyed finding out more about his early life.

I preferred Silver under Nightfall but this was a good continuation to the story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

First of all I’d like to thank netgalley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for granting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Kinda saddened to have to write this review, as Silver Under Nightfall was one of my favorite reads of 2023. Absolutely loved the world (building) in book 1 and of course our favorite vampire x vampire hunter throuple <3

There were definitely some lovely moments between Remy and his vampires that kept me hooked until the very ending but the rest of the plot around it fell kinda flat to me? The first 75% of the book felt very drawn out, while the last like 25% felt very rushed? Almost as if the author hit the 75% mark and internally went ‘’oh shoot I actually have to finish this one, instead of just filling pages and pages with worldbuilding.)

Like I kinda said before, I absolutely don’t mind worldbuilding but not when I have to suffer through what felt like chapters full of it, just to get to some cute moments between the throuple.

I did absolutely love the very end though! Felt like a very fitting end for them and it definitely left me giggling and kicking my feet.

To finish this off strongly, Remy I love you and I will miss you <3

Thank you for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review. I applied for both Audio and text copies and chose to listen.
I will admit, I was not fully prepared for this one…as in I didn’t know it was a sequel and hadn’t read the first book and all I DID know was that it was about vampires and sounded interesting enough for me to request to read!
I was not expecting a love story, especially about a queer throuple, where an ex-vampire hunter is now a companion to two vampires! That first bedroom scene had me like ‘oh, okay’.

Despite the unexpected, I did enjoy this enough to finish it and I will add the first book to my TBR list.
I really liked Remy’s character and his relationships with everyone, the story was interesting and I very much enjoyed learning of this vampire world and the rules within.
3.5 stars rounded up!

I received an e-arc and audioarc through Netgalley all opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed book 1 and was really excited to read book 2.

I would have prefered a younger voice for the narrator. But otherwise I really liked the audiobook.

I enjoyed the plot and all the action in this book. I was a little confused since there was a lot of characters.

I really liked how we got more insight into Remys dad. Because in book was I really disliked him, but he wasn't that bad in this one.

Malekh is such a hater hahah I love it.
He really is a tsundere through and through😂
The romance was fine. I think it lacked some depth.

This was a very enjoyable read that really pulled me in, but I did prefer the first book.

*Spoiler thought*


Something confused me. Remy and Malekh often have sex, but then he gets confused and goes all blushing thinking about Xiaodan using a strap on. Does that mean that he doesn't actually bottom or top Malekh lmfao🤣

Court of Wanderers was an excellent sequel and I was utterly impressed by the twists and turns the plot took. Despite the somewhat slow start, the plot picks up and Remy's character development was good as ever. I like how this book had an excellent closure to the story which surprised me.

My favourite trio returns!!

I will admit, overall I did not enjoy this as much as the first book and found myself not quite as interested in the politics this time around. I think there were maybe just too many parties involved that made it a little more difficult to keep track, even though most were quite distinct. There were also some pacing issues that made it trickier to get through this, but when the pacing picked up, I was there for it.

Regardless of these issues, I absolutely adore Remy, Xioadan and Zidan. These three and their relationship make me *swoon* and say "I wish I had what they had". I had to stop multiple times just to sit and bask in their love. I would honestly love a short story compliation of moments throughout their relationship!

I think I kept with this story more for the characters (loved the return of my fave bestie Elke) and the ever-evolving dynamics rather than the overall plot. One thing I can't fault Rin on is creating multi-dimensional complex characters. The characters and their motivations, for the most part, are compelling and believable.

My rating would be a 3.5-3.75 but rounding up to 4 :)

Cannot wait to buy the newly announced special editions of this too!

I think this had a lot of potential but it was just not for me. The pacing felt a bit off and I couldn't really buy into any of the characters.

Dnf at 51%

I really hoped that I would enjoy this book more than the first one, but it flawed in the same way the first one did.

I didn’t connect with the characters at all and found them quite annoying actually. The world building was good, but there were some holes in the plot here and there.

This sequel was lacking enough punch, and I had wished so much more than what was received. Unfortunately it just didn’t work out for me.