All That Burns by Ryan Graudin {Review}

All That Burns by Ryan Graudin
(All That Glows, #2)
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen; 464 pages
Rating:

In this thrilling sequel to All That Glows, the worlds of magic and mortal are colliding as London celebrates its new king, marking an era of unity between the Faery realm and the human one. Emrys, the Faery guard to the British royal family, sacrificed her powers to be with King Richard, choosing love over immortality. But now, as Emrys struggles to navigate her place between the Faery queen’s court and London’s lavish galas, danger looms beyond the Thames.When a prisoner with dark, strange magic breaks out of Queen Titania’s labyrinthine prison, endangering Emrys's king and sparking an uprising, Emrys must make the hardest decision of all.

Will she reclaim her magic to save Richard’s life and lose him forever? Or stay powerless as the kingdom goes down in flames?

If you have NOT read All That Glows please read with caution. There are some spoilers that were unavoidable. Proceed with caution . . .

If I could rate the first half of the book versus the second half of the book, the rating may look a lot better. The first half of this book was just . . . lacking. Everything. I couldn't get in to it. I actually DNFed this book, with the intention of coming back to it. I just couldn't force myself to continue reading. It's not that the story was boring or the characters, per say, but it just wasn't grabbing me and sucking me in like a book usually does. Nowhere near the feels I felt during the first book and to me, that's the most disappointing thing. When you enjoy a book so much and yet the sequel does absolutely nothing for you. However, I will say, the second half of this book really turned around for me.

I think I didn't like the lack of Richard. I truly believe that might be what made this book drag for me. What I loved so much about the first book was Richard and Emrys but then you take away half that equation and give me his sister instead? Plus, oh PLUS, you sort of throw in another love interest that I use that term loosely. I did not like that factor at all and yes, while it all makes sense in the end, I didn't like it and I just recently had a bad experience with a sequel throwing in a completely new love interest when the original one was perfect. Maybe this was my way of protecting myself from being hurt by this again? I don't really know, actually.

Then again, it's nothing against Richard's sister, Annabelle, or Belle as she's referred to a lot in this book. I actually really like her and I kind of want a story for her. So you see where my mind is having a hard time wrapping around the fact that this book did nothing for me. The characters, which are a big thing for me, were perfect. Well, at least the ones I like were and the story was interesting but it was missing the magic of the first one. Figuratively and I guess literally, too.

Richard and Embers together are just perfection. You don't even understand how much I love these two together. When they are together, I happy sigh. When they are not together, I wanna just skip all that and get to the parts when I can smile.

I can't really talk about the second half of the book and how much I loved it because it'll be a bunch of spoilers. But, she definitely redeemed herself by the second half of the book. She being the author.

I would probably rate the first half of this book with maybe a half a star (I know, harsh, right?) but the second half is probably a solid four stars. And it just makes me sad the whole book didn't feel like a solid four stars.

Doesn't mean you won't like it. I've read plenty of reviews where people really enjoyed this and where many people actually liked this more than the first book. To each, their own. This is why opinions are so great.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.