Godsgrave: The Nevernight Chronicle, Book 2

3.75 Why Would You Forgive StarsNevernight was in my top 5 reads last year gentlefriends so this book had a lot to live up to. While it was a pretty good book overall it fell a little short of its predecessor. Still this world and the characters in it are very interesting and I was glad to be jumping back in.╰⊰✿Non-Spoilery Section✿⊱╮Kristoff does a few things really well throughout this book. He has a unique turn of phrase and prose in this book that is really beautiful even when it is describing something horrendous and ugly. Take the Hanging Gardens for instance. You might initially think that this would be a beautiful place with greenery and flowers everywhere but instead…***all around the city walls hung thousands of iron gibbets, filled with thousands of human bodies.Some were decades old, only tattered bones inside. Some were fresh dead. But from the piteous wails rising over the bustling metropolis beyond, Mia knew hundreds still lived. Left to hang in their cages ’til they perished.The Hanging Gardens of Ashkah. Its flowers made of flesh and bone.***He is fantastic is holding back information and giving it to you piece by piece and not answering every little thing right away. He answers questions with questions and sometimes keeps you guessing to the very last minute.***“I know this much. Some answers are learned. But the important ones are earned.”***Kristoff also has this intricate world full of history and we get glimpses into the cultures, creatures and various histories in some of the most entertaining and best footnotes to describe them all. Our narrator whoever it ends up being is a bit sarcastic and definitely has a good time with the extra little details he likes to throw in.***And the Light God granted the slave his freedom. And the slave was mighty pleased. And nobody stopped to ask what the slave was planning to give the next beggar he found if the first one hadn’t been a god, or how it’s not really sound economic policy for kings to wander about giving taxpayer money to the destitute when public infrastructure is in such dire need of overhaul, or why the creator of the universe had nothing better to do on a weeksend afternoon than come down to earth to mess with people.Pfft. Parables.***I will not dispute that this is an entertaining and intricate story full of twists, turns and many many deaths. No one is safe…no one is guaranteed a spot at the end and just when you think you might have something big figured out…well I think you will be surprised yet again.Actually I have no idea with everything that is happening how this will be finished in just one more book. There seems like there is just so much of the story left to tell.╰⊰✿Semi-Spoilery Section✿⊱╮ You have been warned.The things that make this book fun and still pretty dag gam good were listed above. But more than that are the characters. There are some brand new cast members but remember gentlefriends do not get too attached because this is Kristoff and the one thing you can count on is that people are going to die…often.Mr. Kindly the not cat and Mia’s only true friend is again the best companion a girl could have. I completely love the relationship that they have and it seems like even though he has new competition for Mia’s attention in the form of a Wolf he is still her best friend. He might have some trepidation about the new plan (I believe his exact words were “… this entire plan is oversight and folly, stitched together by jiggery-fmmery…” , and he is not wrong) he will forever be by her side.I went into this pretty blind and I was glad for it because I ended up being so excited that Mia was going into some gladiator games. That is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy. While these aren’t my favorite games they did have a few very cool combatants and some extremely gruesome deaths.I want to say that I loved everything in this book but there were some huge red flags thrown in front of my face.Please don’t take this wrong, I’m not a prude and I’m never against same sex anything. BUT there are two female characters that hook up and I was so upset about. When I thought it was just an inkling of flirtation I was unhappy but then when there was a sex scene with them, well to quote my good friend Eon “I have never been less into a girl on girl scene.” And I totally felt the same way. Character Y did something in Nevernight that I will never forgive her for, N E V E R and yes Character X has become a hormonal twit who can’t seem to keep it in her pants and is lusting after half the cast. Also what happened to Never Forgive, and Never, Ever, Forget because it looks like someone has forgiven and forgotten. I abhorred this entire sub plot of the book and I really hope it is all a ruse and Character X is playing a long game to get back at Character Y but it really doesn’t look that way right now.Even though there is a lot going on in this book and we get some big reveals about Mia’s parents it seemed like Mia had changed a lot from the last book. There might be reasons for that I have have many theories but it seemed like she went from trying to learn anything and everything she could about Darkin and what they could do to just chilling and waiting for answers to come to her. I mean this total shadow dude shows up and saves her butt at one point and says***“I KNOW THAT YOU ARE MEANT FOR MORE THAN THIS,” it said. “YOUR TRUTH LIES BURIED IN THE GRAVE. AND YET YOU PAINT YOUR HANDS IN RED FOR THEM, WHEN YOU SHOULD BE PAINTING THE SKIES BLACK.”“… o, joys, a cryptic one…”“YOUR VENGEANCE IS AS THE SUNS, MIA CORVERE. IT SERVES ONLY TO BLIND YOU.”***And she just lets the entire thing go. I thought he was the most interesting thing in the book and she didn’t even go looking for him or even think about him until much later in the story.So Mr. Kristoff gave us some gladiator games but I really wanted to learn so much more about the creatures of the land and the Darkin and look for the Crown of the Moon. It just seemed like Mia was lost and almost hiding and all the important stuff that kept popping up and I was screaming internally clue, there is a huge clue, she didn’t question and just ho hummed by.The only one that seemed to have their head on semi straight was Mr. Kindly***“All right, then,” she muttered. “What do you want to talk about?”“… where to begin…,” came the whisper in her ear. “… that thing that saved your life in galante? your theory that the darkin are somehow connected to the fall of the ashkahi empire? the map inked on _______Y’s back? and let us not forget your match with the silkling,***So it isn’t that this wasn’t a good book it was in many ways that there are some cool revelations and some great plot twists and the ending was GAHHHHHHHH. Like seriously I was more happy about the last 2-3 pages then I should have been and the guesses and theories abounded after that. But for a lot of the book I felt lost from the path we were supposed to be on. And maybe that is the point because in a lot of ways Mia was lost as well. But, alas I just wanted something….differentish I guess. It is so hard to pin down.I am however beyond excited for the final book in this series because I must know if even a portion of my hypotheses is correct. I’m sorta ready to have my heart torn in pieces with the conclusion of this series.

Man I love good books!!!! This is the 2nd book in the series and it's just got everything I like in it!Great story lines, sword fights, some magic, and some Love involved.I immediately bought the 3rd book and cant wait to start reading right after I post this review:)Wags

My friend recommended Nevernight to me, and I read it in practically one sitting. I was in love with the idea of an assassin school, and Mia's relationships with Tric, the other students, and the shahiids felt real and tangible. Alas, I was disappointed very early on into book two, which was a huge letdown considering how much I enjoyed the first one.If you're hoping to find out more about Mia's darkin powers, well, it's too bad, I guess, and keep your fingers crossed for book three. Godsgrave seemed to go absolutely nowhere, and by about 1/3 of the way in, I was already getting really bored. It felt like a rehash of Nevernight, with totally new characters that honestly, I couldn't get attached to like I did in book one. In fact, the older characters that we were introduced to were barely in the novel at all, and then are ditched with very little feasible explanation. The whole book really failed to hold water for me, as the writing was flimsy and felt mostly like filler, creating relationships that really didn't make sense (which I'll get to in a moment), and basically putting us into the movie Gladiator or, as some other readers have noted, the TV series Spartacus.Godsgrave lacked all the originality and imagination of Nevernight, and almost felt like a genre flip that went from fantasy to historical fantasy because it was SO different from the first book in the series.*DEFINITE SPOILERS BELOW*Mia gets herself sold to a gladiator slave-fighting ring in order to get revenge on the two remaining people who destroyed her family and life. She's first paired with Jessamine (her nemesis from book one) as her hand in order to recover a map for a client in the Red Church. They just so happen to run into Ashlinn, Mia's former friend, the woman responsible for devastating the Quiet Mountain, betraying the Church, and murdering a whole hell of a lot of people, Mia's flame Tric included. Mia, the only baptized Blade that survived the massacre, immediately goes after her.Jessamine jumps in to help, and, despite being a prominent figure from book one who was almost unequaled with weapons (and a favorite in Shahiid Solis's "dance" class), is killed off by Ashlinn almost laughably easy.Eventually Mia gets hold of Ashlinn, but ultimately decides to listen to the girl's pleas about shady assassin clientele (in the murder church, so shocking!) and why they've told Mia several times to leave her two revenge targets (Scaeva and Duomo) alive, regardless of her desperate desire to murdalize the hell out of them.MIa, despite being the only blade the Church currently has and having earned her place by killing literally like 150 people in order to save their lives and stop the betrayal/invasion in Nevernight, decides "Well, f*ck those guys," and flips immediately to Team Ashlinn with very little substantiation or real effort.They are able to involve Mia's former teacher/father figure Mercurio in the plot to deceive the Church rather easily (again, almost laughably easy), so that Mia can forsake literally everyone she risked her life for just a few months prior to seek out her two revenge targets and destroy the Church because they had dealings with the people she's hunting.(Which was really, REALLY unshocking.)Nothing of interest happens in the middle of the book. Seriously. The scenes are all of her becoming a gladiatii and sneaking off to meet with Ashlinn, who despite her repetitive internal thoughts about why she shouldn't trust this girl, she trusts implicitly. She also falls in love with Ashlinn somewhere in the mix.Now, to be perfectly honest, when I realized where Kristoff was going with this relationship, tires screeched in my head.Mia, whose own mother taught her "Never flinch, never fear, and never, ever forget," while her father was being dangled by his neck 'til dead was completely willing to get over Ashlinn murdering the man she loved in book one.The idiocy of this relationship astounded me. Tric meant so much to Mia that she went against Church rules to avenge him even after he died. She broke Church protocol and carved his name into the empty tomb where he'd been "interred" after his death. Their love story had been so innocent and pure, that despite the death, murder, blood, and pain all around them they found each other... And then Ashlinn murdered Tric, and Mia, knowing this... fell in LOVE with her?No gentlefriends, that does not sit well with anyone. Mia, who is so completely consumed with the idea of revenge against those who wronged her that she's willing to turn her back on the entire group of ASSASSINS who took her in and trained her because they stood in her way is willing to overlook a little thing like Ashlinn murdering the man she loved and fall in love with her?!NAH.I wouldn't have cared if she'd fallen for another woman (in fact, I thought there might be some build up between her and Leona), but the idea of revenge-centric Mia, the assassin with a heart of gold falling for the girl who murdered her boyfriend felt so forced it was painful. Nothing about their relationship made sense, and despite my continual hope that Ashlinn would play more of an intrinsic role (devious, back-stabbing Ashlinn, perhaps? Ashlinn who was such a good actress that she fooled trained assassins?!), she is apparently "really" in love with Mia and became little more than the love interest.The story felt like it went nowhere. There was no real danger for Mia, and the plot points that got brought up (like the map that somehow got inscribed on Ashlinn's back, wtf it was for, who her client was, and why they wanted it) were totally shoved to the side as messy loose end to be tied up in book three. And there were a LOT of messy loose ends, which overall made this story feel like canonically, there should have only been two books, but they wanted to stretch it out into three and gave us a bunch of blustery, repetitive filler with brutal death and a weird love story that felt fake AF.****I have a lot more I could say about it, but none of it is really positive. Although I don't feel like I wasted my time to read Godsgrave, I am quite disappointed with it. I really hope that book three will do justice to the series and bring back the magic and mayhem from Nevernight that made me fall in love with it, and I would like to see a real conversation about what Ashlinn did to Tric happen between her and Mia!

Sequel to the (wonderful) fantasy novel 'Nevernight', 'Godsgrave' continues the story of young assassin Mia Corvere. While there is a recap chapter at the very beginning of the book, this is definitely best read as part of the series, and not as a standalone. Following the complicated circumstances in which Mia was inducted into the Red Church as a Blade (a master assassin), 'Godsgrave' sees her at the beginning of her career as a Blade, following assignments given to her by the church, while continuing to work towards her own personal mission. To this end, she deliberately sells herself into slavery, and ends up fighting for her life, aided by old friends and enemies.Where 'Nevernight' drew comparisons with Harry Potter ('Hogwarts for assassins'), this sequel largely leaves that setting behind, and is closer to 'Gladiator'. The humour and suspense are as strong as in the first volume, and whereas the gladiatorial setting would normally have left me cold, the author has managed to imbue it with the same magic and I was gripped throughout. The shadowcat companion, Mr Kindly, is as entertaining as ever, and the shadowwolf, Eclipse, is a welcome addition to Mia's little team. Characters from the past return in this sequel, but in ways I did not expect.As with 'Nevernight', the beginning of the book is interrupted frequently by copious footnotes; while these are informative in terms of establishing Mia's universe, and amusing, they do break up the flow of the story rather (and are a bit of a nuisance to access on a Kindle), and I was glad that they petered out further into the novel.A highly imaginative and different story, I loved it and can't wait for the third book to come out. Can't recommend this enough.

Well, he did it. I wasn't expecting Jay Kristoff to be able to top Nevernight. Second books are often the weakest in a trilogy, and Nevernight was so good that Godsgrave had an even higher mountain to climb. And then, about five chapters in, I realised by scepticism was misplaced. Godsgrave is just as brilliant - maybe even better - than Nevernight. The author takes everything that was so good about the first book and expands it. The world gets bigger, the politics get more twisted and the violence gets bloodier. Everything was perfection. The world, the history, the characters, the plot, the dialogue were all individually outstanding, and together they were absolutely incredible.After just scraping by her initiation into the Red Church, Mia draws closer to her ultimate goal of avenging the deaths of her family by killing their killers; Scaeva and Duomo. Unfortunately, her end differs to that of her church, and she's forced to go it alone in her quest for revenge. In order to get to Scaeva and Duomo, she has to enter - and win - Godsgrave's gladiator-esque games. By a cruel twist of fate, she finds herself enslaved in her old family home - now a gladiator/slaved training school - where she meets fellow slaves and warriors who make her bloody focus waiver ever so slightly. Mia's fellow recruits were so well written, never once feeling like cliches or plot devices. Mia's almost sisterly relationship with young healer slave Maggot was quietly touching, enough to make you believe that Mia's bloodymindedness could start to falter.Slave owner Leona was another stand out. While she could have been a standard antagonist or a really good bad guy undone by a sappy back story (my pet peeve!), the author managed to make her an absolute bitch, but a very human one. Constantly battling her abusive bastard of a father, Leona still bought humans to fight to the death, but there were just enough quiet scenes to show the woman behind the mask, even if I did still want to see her get her comeuppance! I was a bit disappointed that Mia's new daemon, the wolf-like Eclipse, was MIA for much of the story. She (it?) had a great back and forth with Mia's original shadowpet, Mr Kindly, but felt a bit pointless given how rarely she featured.While I loved Mia's sweet and tender relationship with Ash - it was the closest thing to sweet I could ever hope to find in this series! - I just couldn't get fully on board with it because I loved Tric so much in the first book. He and Mia were so good together and shared a genuine bond, so when Mia jumped into bed with the girl who killed him, there was no way I was going to ship their pairing! The sex scenes were just and graphic, hot and well-written as they were in Nevernight. Unlike some other authors, who try to be both graphic and coy and end up sounding like they're not 100% sure how sex actually works, Jay Kristoff goes there! I've read countless, poorly written sex scenes that refer to down there or people reaching their peak (although my personal favourite are those that refer to guys roaring as they climax. Can you imagine someone roaring as they came? You'd laugh your ass off!) but you don't get that here. Sex, language and violence get equal billing in Godsgrave and this book doesn't shy away from the reality of any one of them. I wasn't a huge fan of the early threesome sex scene, simply because it felt unnecessary and therefore a bit tacky. It wasn't like Mia was going for stealth - she poisoned her target and he ended up vomiting his guts up like he was in a Mortal Kombat fatality - so quite why there was a four page sex scene leading up to it instead of her just slitting his throat was beyond me. Still though, Jay Kristoff is a man who knows how to write good sex!There's an undeniable Gladiator-esque vibe to the book, I had high hopes for the inevitable 'colesseum' scenes, and I was not disappointed! The beasts Mia encountered in the arena brought genuine peril to the proceedings; from giant worms that vomited up their entire stomachs to six-armed, acid-spitting spider women, I was on the edge of my seat for each and every action sequence. Even though you have more than a sneaking suspicion that the protagonist isn't going to be killed off on page 80, the danger feels real and the stakes feel suitably high. I did wonder how Scaeva hadn't been assassinated earlier, given how easily Mia's frenemy Ash was able to sneak around poisoning wine and hiding weapons in the arena.It's hard not to give too much away, but the story was so, so good! It built on all the best element from book one, expanding the world and history through the new characters Mia meets. The footnotes peppered through the main story linking to supplementary world info and history were carried over from Nevernight, and I personally love them. I guess I could agree with some people who say they're a lazy way of conveying information rather than incorporating it into the chapters, but most of it enhances the story rather fits into it. The notes explained legends, imparted sarcastic wisdom from the narrator and shaded in the details of Godsgrave's history, and they can be skipped without detracting from the main story if you're not into them. Just don't go into this book expecting everything to come up sunshine and rainbows. The story, the world, the characters are all brutal and no punches are pulled in showing exactly what this means. There's a borderline cute scene where Mia and her fellow, terrified new recruit prepare to enter the arena for the first time. In a moment of uncharacteristic softness, she holds his hand, tells him to stick with her and, just for a moment, you think they're going to be okay. And then the lad immediately gets shot in the neck and dies. Yeah, sweetness and light, it ain't!And the ending ... 'byss and blood, the ending! I don't think I've ever anticipated a sequel this much in my life! Jay Kristoff is a master storyteller and the king of cliffhangers.

A strong middle book in the trilogy, it begins by swapping between the present and the past. Each time something is about to be revealed, we get lurched through time again. This trope was probably used just about within an acceptable amount. I was starting to tire of the constant swapping just as the timelines link up. I did enjoy both parts of the story however, with its usual description and fast-paced action. There are quite a few more direct influences of Ancient Rome in this book compared to Nevernight, yet Kristoff still manages to put his own spin on things.We begin in a scorching desert, and the flashbacks begin to explain how Mia came to be in such a predicament. The characters she meets along the way are great individuals, with a few familiar faces cropping up occasionally. This one had some hard-hitting emotional scenes which I was not expecting but thoroughly blew me away. The conclusion was fairly obvious from quite early on, but the journey to get there was still gripping enough that I read most of this in one sitting again. There is one "oh damn!" moment that I did not see coming, but made so much sense once you knew.Blood and guts run amok in Godsgrave, much like Nevernight, with a few smutty scenes dotted here and there. Overall a very enjoyable read, but Nevernight was a lot to live up to and follow on from. Excited for the conclusion in Darkdawn.

The continuing Saga of Mia Corvere continued from 'Nevernight'.If you read my review of that book, you'll see that I didn't think it was original, and had too many footnotes. This book is no different. Those footnotes! So seLf-indulgent, and on the whole unfunny and jarring. The book... totally unoriginal.. this time borrowing wholesale from 'Gladiator' (the maggot scene especially).But again... I loved it! Even more this time.Kristoff's characters are great. They live and breathe, and their interaction is great and makes me smile. I'll even forgive a scene which was exactly the same as the opening scene of 'Nevernight' that I hated... two scenes with the same story, just very slightly altered. It worked better this time, but it's still heavy-handed I feel.The story didn't have a dull moment. At every chapter's end I felt the need to continue... to find out what happened... and again, there were a few surprises at the end (some telegraphed way in advance, but some were very cleverly revealed and a surprise).It's also a rare book (as was 'Nevernight') where, in my humble opinion the sex scenes were not gratuitous or embarrassing. They just seemed.. right. For the type of story and for the characters. That's a rare thing.So... a full 5 stars as I'm champing at the bit to read 'Darkdawn' to find out what happens to Mia and many of the cast. It's not a perfect book by a long way, but boy did I enjoy it!

Many reviews questioned the language, the theme.I review the trilogy here as you are more likely to be reading this than the third book to decide if think this is for you or not.This is a well spun story, Jay Kristoff knows his craft and he draws you in, cempelling you to read on, building intrigue about our main protagonist Mia.He creates characters you believe in, a world you can imagine.This is a fantasy epic that rampages across its lands following Mia and the trail of blood, violence, betrayal and love she leaves in the shadows behind her.Jay Kristoff not only creates a good tale but layers it with underlying twists and thrills, ever there are secrets hidden and our heroine does not always succeed, the story not always taking you down the path you expect.I read this trilogy in succession and thoroughly enjoyed it and as ever with good books was somewhat sad when the last page was turned.So if you like fantasy, great characters, a good level of mystery to an epic sweeping tale, you will most probably enjoy this.The language humorous, coarse and of a style that suits the way of life in this land. Not flowery and stilted or difficult, but suited to the story itself.I will remember this book and its characters and leave you with this fitting quote:"to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is to never die. And to burn in the memories of our friends is to never say goodbye."