I liked the first book in this duology a lot, but this one was a bit disappointing. It just doesn't feel like a duology. The 2 year time jump made it really hard to get back into the story. The book also added a new POV with Nian, which at first I didn't like (but by the end, I was disappointed with Ying's story, so actually liked Nian's view more). But my big problem was that Ying was out on this pirate adventure, which as kind of fun, but felt completely disconnected to anything in book 1. I was also hoping for more romance.