I wanted to start off by saying that I did read both books in the duology and thought O’Toole came up with a really interesting world and story. I don’t think these books were quite ready for publication yet, though.

This may be the author’s writing style, but there are a lot of sentence fragments and misplaced commas that kept taking me out of the story. I think a round of copy edits at the line level is needed for this series.

On a macro level, I felt that the scenes weren’t given enough room to breathe and often felt rushed. This resulted in whatever having been built up at the start of the scene getting completely negated a handful of paragraphs later. For example, while escaping in the woods, Iskra and Braya separate but are reunited moments later.

Key aspects of the plot were sometimes explained away with handwaving - like the fact that there are only four mollakai or that Doelon isn’t the capital but is somehow the seat of the coup? Or that Braya and Heyden reunified and magically got over their issues in one dream?

What really bothered me was the ending. There was a very obvious editing error in chapters 27 and 28, where Braya ends up in two places at once. Heyden’s sacrifice didn’t resonate as much because he was instructed by Yule to do it and it didn’t come from a genuine place. The scene at the dam felt completely pointless and could’ve been reworked.

Reede's POV chapters felt extraneous and the twist was fairly obvious from early on. I also felt that it was unnecessary for all of the younger cast to be related to the older cast. There were so many surprise parentage discoveries or secret royalty that it was no longer shocking after the 3rd or 4th person.

I think the series has potential but it needs some work to be a success.

Could not put this one down! I liked it even better than the first book of the series.

There are so many things I love about Tara O’Toole’s writing and some things I think still have room for improvement but all in all her strengths definitely shine the brightest in her writing. This book had me glued to the pages. O’Toole is a great storyteller and her mind is able to come up with the most elaborate plots that had me guessing every step of the way. Her other incredible strength is the ability to write characters that leap off the page. Considering how many characters have been introduced into the series (and there have been A LOT) she has been able to give every one of them a personality of their own and make them memorable to the reader. Just from the characters alone I was able to feel completely immersed into this story. It was easy to keep track of who is who and I loved how every single one of the characters was written to have their own personality and mannerisms. Nuinn was definitely written the best. I would have liked to see a little more from Sayleth.

The series has a solid premise and storyline. The characters are interesting and there is enough plot twists to keep your mind reeling. The triple POV in The Act Of Ascension was so well done and everything came together perfectly. It was easy to follow along and every chapter left on a cliffhanger making it impossible to put down.

My only complaints and the reason I didn’t go up to 5 stars was because there are a lot of mini, climatic scenes back to back. Each scene felt hurried and made it hard to really immerse myself into it. When books do this my mind just envisions the characters running from one danger to the next like in the cartoon Scooby-Doo. Like where the gang is running across the screen being chased by one goblin just to turn around and run across the screen in the other direction being chased by a different goblin and so on… It would have been better to have less scenes with more focus and detail going into the main ones. It would have made them more atmospheric, impactful and memorable. That being said, there were some really well written scenes, I’m mainly referring towards the end of book two where it was back to back to back.

Another thing I would have loved to see a little more of is stronger chemistry between the FMC and MMC. Their encounters in the first book were really good but felt lacking in the second. I’m not referring to spice either. I did think the dream was really sweet where she says “I think we’re dreaming”.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tara O’Toole for an ARC of both book one and two of The Rite Of Radnick series.

Second book in this duology didn't disappoint.Our characters pick up straight from first book to fight,survive and wonder who to trust.This book have multi-POV,but it's not confusing or annoying,it actually explain some behavior that I wonder about in previous book.I again feel for Braya,she does not have a minute to rest and regroup,action in this book is so crazy that I keep reading just to find out how it's going to end.
Will Braya save Sleepers and her best friend?
Will she survive The Act of Ascension when Keepers and Mollakai want put her to Sleep?
Who will ascend the Sovereign’s Seat?
If you looking for constant action,friendship,betrayal,little bit of romance this book it's for you.This is the author that I will look out for in the future.
Thank you netgally and author for ARC .