thistlechaser | DNF: Skyfire: Book 2 of the Summer King Chronicles (Reply)

DNF #123: Skyfire (The Summer King Chronicles #2) by Jess E. Owen.

I think a writer's first book is sometimes special, it's their baby. They take their time writing it, they spend years working on it, it gets so much attention. If it takes off, then they write a second one, but it doesn't get anywhere near as much attention because they need to get it out in a timely matter (and in some cases, shortcuts can be taken because they can ride on the first book's coattails).

I think that's what happened with this book. The first book had just a couple editing issues in the entire book. This one had more than a couple per chapter. The first book hooked me so hard, this one couldn't hold my attention at all.

I picked up the first book because of this line in someone else's review:

The gryphons feel like REAL animals. They don't have magical powers. They aren't impossibly built and they are limited by the strength of their bodies and minds.

And what helped me decide to DNF this one was this line in another's review:

I felt one of the defining characteristics of the series is that these are intelligent animals in realistic, believable settings. This book sort of did away with that.

This book felt nothing like the first one. The story was so heavy-handed and at the same time draggingly slow.

Plot: It picked up right where book one left off, with Shard trying to make the best of the situation he was left in. (I don't want to go into spoilery details, since the first book is worth reading.) But the "bad guy" got comically bad (where previously he was bad for believable reasons), and the magic which had been really nice and subtle in the first book was now in-your-face a big huge thing.

I forced myself to read to 20%. Reviews say the story takes off after the first quarter, but having to read through a quarter of a book for things to take off is a really big ask, plus that doesn't address the lower editing quality and writing/character issues. I gave up on it and the rest of the series.