Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orisha, 2)

I absolutely loved the book both of them the first one and the second one. I hope there will be a third book because of the ending of the second one.

This book series is amazing. I’m still reading book 2, but each page has me craving more!

For a follow up to “Children of Blood and Bone,” Tomi Adeyemi wrote “Children of Virtue and Vengeance.” COVAV was supposed to answer any lingering questions and perhaps bring a conclusion to the perpetual war between the maji and the monarchy. ***Spoiler Alert *** There's going to be a third book. And while we’re playing spoiler, let’s go into some specifics about why COVAV is not as good as COBAB.COVAV continues in the same format as COBAB in that the chapters are alternately narrated from the first person perspective of Zelie, Amari, and Inan. Just like in COBAB, they don’t equally share in the chapters. Of the 90 chapters Zelie has 40, Amari has 30, and Inan has 20. I don’t know if Tomi Adeyemi intentionally divvied out the chapters like this or if they just so happened to be neatly allotted as they are.Now that Saran is gone a new nemesis has stepped into his place in his wife, Queen Nehanda. She proved to be even more vicious, bloodthirsty, and vengeful than Saran. And though Inan is now the king, Queen Nehanda pretty much runs the show.But the single biggest development of the book was the creation of a race of people called Titans (not pronounced titans though it’s spelled that way). When Zelie did the sacred ritual without the sacred scroll, she brought magic back to the maji while also giving magic to some who had diviner blood though they weren’t diviners. The titans are distinguished by a streak of white hair and many titans became soldiers for the monarchy. One of the greatest titans wound up being Queen Nehanda herself.That’s a quick synopsis and none of that information spoils the book, but I said I would get into why COVAV was not as good as COBAB. So, here we go in order from least significant to most significant.1. The romance.Simply put, I wasn’t the target audience for that aspect of the book. There was romance in the first book, yet it wasn’t as much nor as drawn out. This time around there seemed to be more of the tingly feelings, racing pulses, and charged caresses between Amari and Tzain, and Zelie and Roen. That stuff always makes me shift in my seat uncomfortably.2. Tzain’s decreased role.Tzain was my favorite character in COBAB. He was the strongest without the benefit of magic or noble blood, he was the most consistent, and he was the most important character of those without a first person narrative. He was a consummate big brother and Zelie could not have got along without him. In COVAV he takes a big step back and has a noticeably reduced role. It’s apparent that his strength is not required as much being that Zelie and Amari have gained in power. As a result Tzain was relegated to Amari’s boy toy. I may be overstating it, but not by much.3. The fickleness of the main characters.In COBAB we found that Inan was extremely wishy-washy. What was firm resolve one day was nothing but empty promises the next. It seems to have been contagious because Zelie got a severe case of it and Amari caught it as well. Throughout the book the three of them would seem to be so determined only to do an about-face after some unfortunate event. They were very shallow in that way. Instead of pondering or simply modifying their understanding and beliefs about a person or a course of action, they would do a complete 180. It was exasperating reading them flip-flop around like politicians.4. Bringing the dead back to life.There’s something about bringing the dead back to life that has never sat well with me in a book or movie unless we’re talking about zombies. Death is a finality that all human beings have to deal with. Death is also a consequence that some people have to deal with as a result of their own hasty or ill-advised actions. When Amari followed through on her plan to spread Cancer gas throughout the city of Ibadan in order to kill her mother and brother, she had to know there would be a lot of collateral damage. There were blackened desiccated bodies everywhere due to her actions, but wait a minute… Zelie has found a new power. Now she can bring the dead to life.Along with being a cheap and easy cop out for the writer the move has other implications. First: it makes Zelie and the other maji too god-like. They already have the power to do awesome things; to bring the dead back to life is superfluous. Second: if death is not final and permanent, then what is? They can already heal anyone with any injury, the grounders and welders can rebuild cities with a simple wave, so then what is out of their reach? They’re one step away from becoming a children’s cartoon in which all damage is reset by the next scene. Last: the move let Amari off the hook. What she did was egregious and nigh unforgivable. She sacrificed the lives of countless innocent people in order to win a war--or better yet win a throne. That’s a decision she should have to live with for the rest of her life, but now it’s as if she made a simple boo-boo that was fixed with super glue. I can’t help but think that because she’s a main character Tomi couldn’t let her be a bad guy deserving of death herself. With that one move death no longer has any significance.COVAV suffered from what many sequels suffer from: an attempt to be better than the first installment. Unfortunately, what so many authors and studios do is make the second episode more dramatic and more action packed. Either the powers become amplified, the body count is increased, or the amount of overall action is markedly more. Tomi made the monarchy more powerful which meant the maji had to be more powerful and in the process of all the talk about war the endearing theme of COBAB was lost. Magic had been restored, but not the rights and dignity of the diviners, so now instead of a ceremony being the goal, annihilation became the goal, and it sucked.

Disclaimer: I bought this book! Support your authors!Book: Children of Virtue and VengeanceAuthor: Tomi AdeyemiBook Series: The Legacy of Orisha Book 2Rating: 5/5Diversity: ownvoice Black characters!Recommended For...: ya fantasy, high fantasy, magic, ownvoicePublication Date: December 3, 2019Genre: YA FantasyRecommended Age: 16+ (language, violence, gore, sexual content, depression TW, grief TW, racism in context of magic, religious persecution, and some eugenics imagery)Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.Pages: 404Synopsis: After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.Review: I really loved this book! It was a great action packed sequel to the first book. The book kept the same themes of using prejudice and racism in terms of magic, but in this book we got more of Amari’s story and we saw how a well meaning person can still make mistakes and hurt a culture rather than help it and it showed, in terms of magic again, systematic racism and how that can look through two different perspectives. There was also great writing around grief processing, depression, eugenics imagery, religious persecution, and slavery imagery. The characters were well developed and I loved seeing Zelie get closer to Roen. The pacing was also very even and the book kept me hooked from beginning to end.The only things that I didn’t like as much were that I thought the world building could have been better and that the beginning is confusing. When you don’t read the books back to back, it gets a little hard to remember all of the details. Thank goodness for wiki or else I would have been so lost.Verdict: A great read! Definitely recommend this series!

Children Of Virtue And Vengeance confirms that the massive success of Children Of Blood And Bone was no fluke. While the first book establishes the world and the central characters, the sequel sees all the main characters going through breathtaking evolutions in a plot involving magic, love, loss, betrayal, and sacrifice, capped by an ending that is both surprising and heartbreaking. I can not wait for the next installment of this sensational series.

I thought there were only two books in this series!! Where's the next one??! I have read the reviews and have no idea how anyone can Gove this less than 5/5! Literally on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Sebbene abbia apprezzato il tentativo di risolvere alcuni buchi di trama aperti dal finale del primo volume, ho trovato questo secondo capitolo della saga meno interessante e grintoso. I personaggi diventano spesso incoerenti (in particolare Amari, ma anche i personaggi secondari), il sistema magico può fare tutto e il contrario di tutto e in generale i colpi di scena mi sono sembrati un po’ forzati.Resta comunque una lettura agile e scorrevole che non annoia.

Quando um livro termina em um ponto alto, a sensação que dá é de que ele foi excelente do começo ao fim. Eu terminei este daqui pensando, "Essa série é uma das melhores que eu já li", o que continua sendo verdade, mas não dá para dizer que este segundo livro foi ótimo inteiro ou no mesmo nível do primeiro. Ele tem uma segunda metade muito boa, um final excelente e que te deixa com a sensação de que você não vai viver direito até descobrir o que acontece no terceiro. Mas infelizmente teve alguns problemas no que veio antes.Eu realmente amo a Zélie, acho incrível como ela é teimosa, tempestuosa e "difícil", como não abaixa a cabeça para ninguém e nem facilita a vida de quem não merece, mas tem um coração muito bom e se importa de verdade com as pessoas. Não quero que ela mude nunca e estou bem feliz por ver que ela não mudou. Mesmo assim, neste livro ela está lidando com luto, com medo e vontade de fugir sem ter que encarar seus problemas, então ela não teve um desenvolvimento super linear e claro. Ainda acho que tudo que aconteceu com ela foi bem coerente e gostei de ver que sua lealdade à Amari está acima de desentendimentos.A Amari, em compensação, estava perdida aqui. Ela ficava repetindo a mesma coisa o tempo todo, só tomando atitude impulsiva e nunca tendo mesmo que lidar com as consequências disso. Para mim, a construção e o desenvolvimento dela desandou bastante neste livro. Tzain ficou um pouco esquecido e Inan, do outro lado, me pareceu um pouco frouxo e sem graça.Em compensação, Roën veio com tanta força e tanto charme, que me conquistou loucamente! Estou oficialmente apaixonada por ele e preciso que ele fique com a Zélie! Nada contra o Inan, eu até acho ele bem bacana, mas sabe? Roën é maravilhoso demais!Mas o verdadeiro problema do livro, o que o deixa atrás do anterior, é seu enredo. Filhos de Sangue e Osso é um livro de fantasia completo, poderia facilmente ser um livro único e não teve um único momento em que me senti entediada, enrolada ou incomodada com o ritmo e a ordem de acontecimentos. Aqui, me senti assim às vezes. O enredo dá várias voltas sem sair direito do lugar e acaba não desenvolvendo a grande questão dele de verdade até os últimos segundos. É uma guerra um pouco repetitiva e com confrontos fracos ou dispensáveis.Tem algumas coisas que acontecem e que têm poucas consequências, por isso mesmo a sensação de que nada muda.Mas também tem cenas incríveis, emocionantes, de partir o coração e me fazer gritar "Não!" enquanto lia. Tem personagens novos marcantes, expande ainda mais a magia desse universo e o livro, afinal, acaba em um ponto alto maravilhoso. E isso importa também.A reviravolta final provavelmente é a mais surpreendente que eu já vi em toda a minha vida e eu não consigo nem começar a adivinhar direito tudo que vai mudar daqui para a frente! Tem tantas possibilidades, algumas que eu nunca teria esperado antes, outras que fazem sentido mas que são tão ruins (para os personagens, não para o enredo), que tenho até medo de imaginar, mas que também dariam uma força e um significado à história que seriam absurdamente poderosos.A maior parte desse livro só deve merecer umas três estrelas, mas o final é ótimo e já sei que o próximo livro vai ser espetacular. Esperei alguns dias para ter certeza do que eu achei da história e o fato é que essa é uma das melhores séries de fantasia que eu já li. Mal posso esperar pelo próximo e estou louca para reler o primeiro e esse também! O que você tá esperando para ler?

El libro llegó con un corte en la portada, realmente no me molesta por eso no lo regresé ya el contenido está intacto pero es algo en tener en cuenta, es el segundo libro de una serie y la recomiendo mucho si te gusta la fantasía ♡

The twists and turns you don't see coming. The hidden history you suspected, confirmed. The love triangle with two love interests you oscillate between. The steadfast brother whose love is stronger than any magic. The evil queen you can't wait to see vanquished. And Amari.Can't wait to read the next book in the series. Well done, Tomi.

Amazing book