Book Review: The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #2)

The Dragonets' journey continues... Spoilers ahead.

After finding Clay's family, the Dragonets of Destiny now travel to the kingdom of the Sea, where they hope to meet Tsunami's family. This does end up happening, however they're not quite what Tsunami expected them to be like. There's also an ongoing mystery of who has been murdering the royal SeaWing dragonets for all these years. Tsunami takes it upon herself to find the killer, though it turns out she herself may be in danger as well...

I greatly enjoyed this book, even more so than the first one. Tui is just a master at crafting this world, and, while we get to stay in mostly one place for the entirety of the book, it's still described in vivid detail and you just get to know so much about how the royal SeaWing life works. Tsunami being the lost princess was to be expected, but I'm glad she didn't just accept her role blindly and still questioned her mother.

Speaking of the characters, they were also really good. I already loved Tsunami in the first book, but she really develops over here, slowly maturing and becoming less impulsive and violent over the course of the book. Queen Coral, while I personally don't like her that much, also isn't a completely black-or-white character. She does shitty things, but she does have somewhat understandable reasons for some of them. I also really liked Anemone, she's so precious and must be protected. Riptide was okay, though I thought Tsunami's crush on him was way too sudden. The other dragonets were still good, too, but they really do take a back seat in this book as we mostly focus on Tsunami and her family. Starflight seems to suddenly be supporting Blister, which was interesting, but he slowly came around by the end of the book.

The mystery was interesting as well and while I've read the book before and already knew the outcome, it still kept me thoroughly engaged. Whirlpool made for a decent one-note villain though I prefer his bit about marrying Anemone would've been left out because that made me very uncomfortable (he's an adult, Anemone is a dragonet). I know he'd only be marrying her for power, but still, yikes.

But even with that, the rest of the book was just so good that I couldn't put it down. I've read the Wings of Fire series, specifically the first arc, a lot of times already, but each time I do I still enjoy it so much.

Rating: 5/5