Finally taking a gander at book two. Spoilers ahead.
Nautilus, a water-fire wolf hybrid, has trouble belonging in the water kingdom. But just as he's starting to find his footing there, it is discovered he's the long-lost prince of the Water Pack. This ends up getting him into a fierce rivalry with the current heir to the throne, Prince Benthos. Nautilus must now face his own demons in order to protect both himself, his friends and the entire Water Pack from Benthos' wrath.
Overall a pretty solid followup to the first book, which I already liked. The world still feels rich and interesting and this book has some really good character work going for it, particularly for both Nautilus and Ember. Wave also isn't the most developed character out there, but I still really liked her. Delta was also a nicely flawed character even if he wasn't in the book for that much.
The highlight of the book was really Nautilus' arc, though. Him going from an anxious wreck who hates the fact that he's a hybrid to fully embracing his roots as both a hybrid and royal while also fighting for his kingdom is great. His arc was handled very well and had its realistic ups and downs.
As for Benthos, he's an interesting villain. I personally liked him better than Tempest in the last book, who was a pretty basic villain. Benthos isn't that unique, either, but I felt he was handled better than Tempest. Also, at some points I do kinda feel for Benthos, even if he's obviously a bad guy. An orphan who gets adopted by a king and becomes first in line for the throne, only to find out he'll always be second best just because he's not Delta's biological son. That sucks, man. Of course Benthos is still evil and it doesn't excuse any of his heinous actions or plans, but his motivation is really sympathetic. And it also shows Delta as a flawed character. Yes, we do like him, but also he wasn't the best father to Benthos and his parental favoritism still clearly shows.
One thing I do gotta hold against the book though is one scene where Benthos is basically introduced. He meets up with Nautilus and very confidently starts monologuing about his evil plans for the Water Pack once he's king. Which just feels way too convenient and "because the plot demands it" and unnatural. Especially since the character of Benthos only was just introduced, so it basically feels like the author going "here is this new character and you instantly need to know he's over the top evil and our villain and he wants to rule the Pack".
I think that if the author had introduced Benthos to us as an initially more neutral character (or even just a simply antagonistic one, but not an outright villain) and we'd have gotten to know his plans later down the line that would've been far more effective. Especially if the nuance of his backstory was introduced to us earlier as well (since it's only shown very, very late into the book). It would've given us a better, less forced perspective of the character and felt less unnatural writing-wise.
Overall this is still a solid book though, and I enjoyed it a lot. I will read book three eventually, but that might take a while.
Rating: 4/5
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