VEIL

Shae and her friends seek to overthrow Cathal’s oppressive reign in this duology closer.

Guided by a capriciously behaving torn page from the Book of Days, Shae and companions—prickly former trainer Kennan, best friend Fiona, and former suitor Mads—race across Montane in hopes of reaching safety in Gondal. They succeed, learning lots of backstory in the process about Shae’s mother and the Bard rebellion in general. But Gondal, though quite nifty (and fun to explore through Shae’s unworldly eyes), has problems of its own, resulting in the intense marginalization of Montanian refugees. While the heroes try to figure out whom they can trust and how to improve the lives of their countrymen at home and abroad, there’s a strong theme of speaking up as not being enough; though the explicit calls to action and critiques of ineffective protests can be didactic at times, these moments are justified by how they fit into the plot. Themes aside, the plot’s story beats are familiar enough that some plot twists will be expected. Plenty of action sequences and rising stakes provide incentive to ignore these moments of predictability. In the relationship storylines, Shae’s still reeling and off balance in dealing with her feelings of attraction to and betrayal by Ravod; her friendships are given equal weight, though. Among secondary characters, there’s a girl-girl romance and nonbinary representation. Aside from dark-skinned Kennan, characters default to White.

An easy-to-engage-with slice of escapism that fans of the first volume will appreciate.