Kerstin Hall’s Second Spear has been on my TBR for a long time. I initially got an ARC through NetGalley. But unfortunately, that coincided with starting my PhD, and I just never got to read it. Then I picked up a free physical copy that someone was giving away and stared at it for a while, until I finally read it this week. I previously read and reviewed book one, The Border Keeper, here.
After surviving the schemes of a vengeful goddess and learning some shattering truths about her former life, the warrior Tyn feels estranged from her role guarding her ruler. Grappling with knowledge of her identity, she unleashes her frustrations on all the wrong people.
When an old enemy returns wielding an unstoppable, realm-crushing weapon and Tyn is swept up in the path of destruction, she must make a choice about who she is and who she wants to be.
My enjoyment of this book was somewhat handicapped by how long it had been since I read the first one. I remember really liking The Border Keeper, but not many of the details, and Second Spear doesn’t give you much in the line of a recap. Be that as it may, after floundering a little to reacclimate myself to the world, I enjoyed this a lot. Tyn is a wonderfully heroic hero. First Spear is clearly going through something, and you feel it, and Rion has the most marvelous growth as a person and character. Much of the characterization of the villain is meant to carry over from book one (which, of course, I remember little of), but he still felt villainous enough to find his defeat satisfying. I look forward to the next book.
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