This was great. It has a super interesting magic system: bone shard magic, where constructs must follow the orders carved into the bones. It reminded me of coding!
It does take a little while to get going and understand what's going on, but once I got my bearings, I was hooked. The characters are very well developed - even the more minor side characters. And there's a lot of interesting themes about identity and power and empire. One of the main characters, Lin, the emperor's daughter, has lost her memories and is trying to master bone shard magic in secret. The other main point of view, Jovis, is a smuggler with a fun animal sidekick who gives him super powers and is trying to figure out who he wants to be.
There's fun secrets to reveal, and the book does take some interesting twists and turns.

I wasn't as entranced as I was when I read the first book. I missed the mystery! This was more about politics and characters. I kind of get the complaints of middle-book syndrome.

This opens with a time skip, which was a bit jarring, but once I got my bearings it was enjoyable. It didn't quite reach the highs that the first book. Actually, I was bored throughout a lot of this book, and almost gave up on it, but it picked up near the end. Learning more about the sinking islands was fun and reminded me why I liked the first book so much. And in the end, I liked the ultimate resolution of the major characters. I enjoyed how it all wrapped up!