#Review - Between Frost and Fury by Chani Lynn Feener #YALit #SyFy #Romance

Series: The Xenith Trilogy (#2)
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: July 24, 2018
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / SyFy / Romance

Snarky, sarcastic, and definitely not happy about being back in space, our faux princess returns in this YA sequel to Amid Stars and Darkness.
Delaney has been kidnapped by aliens. Again. After only a month back on Earth with her hot new alien boyfriend Ruckus, the deadly and devastatingly handsome prince Trystan has dragged her right back to his planet.

While some girls may dream of winning a prince’s heart, Delaney just wishes this one would leave her alone. Instead, she finds herself at the center of both a tense political battle between two alien kingdoms and Trystan’s romantic attentions, both of which are absolutely ruining the life she’s built on Earth. Not to mention the fact that she’s about to be crowned queen of a planet she’s barely even visited. Just another day in the life of an ordinary human girl.

Readers won’t want to miss Between Frost and Fury, the compelling, fast-paced sequel to Chani Lynn Feener’s Amid Stars and Darkness.

 

Between Frost and Fury, by author Chani Lynn Feener, is the second installment in the authors The Xenith Trilogy. It is pretty much imperative that you read the first installment, Amid Stars and Darkness, in order to understand the characters, and the world that our protagonist Delaney, has been dragged into and can't seem to escape. For the second time in her life, and after only a month of being home from her previous excursion off planet, Delaney has been kidnapped, and taken away from Earth.

This time it is Prince Trystan who does the kidnapping. This time, it is for high stakes political maneuvers that could end up with her dead if she fails and Earth conquered by a brutal dictator. All Delaney wants is a normal life and to be with her new boyfriend Ruckus and not worry about intergalactic politics, and the threat of constant war. She doesn't want to have to impersonate Princess Olena any more like she did in the first installment. But, fate, and Trystan have other ideas.

Ideas that include Delaney being herself. Her true self with her red hair and her very human characteristics, not as Olena. Ideas that include Delaney marrying Trystan and becoming the heir apparent to the Vakar crown. Trystan demands that Delaney accept her role as Lissa Delaney representing the Vakar & Earth, especially since she voluntarily took an oath in the first installment. Delaney finds herself in the odd position of being able to protect Vakar and Earth because she’s technically a representative of both.

As Delaney's spouse to be, Trystan would be honor-bound to protect the home(s) of his spouse thus keeping his father from invading and conquering Earth. After Ruckus fails to rescue Delaney, and ends up in a prison cell instead, Delaney is forced to go through the betrothal protocol for her new planet. She thinks she has made a deal with Trystan that will allow her to do enough to satisfy his father but ultimately be allowed to return home. Only Trystan's father - the Rex - has his own plans and Delaney's happiness doesn't matter to him at all. 

Rex appears to be several steps ahead of Trystan, and even knows things that he shouldn't have access to. Rex, my dear readers, is a real bastard and a villain who needs to be taken down by any means necessary. But, I have to say he makes a marvelous villain.  The thing that stuck out to me the most was Trystan's solid character growth in this story. By the end of the book, he didn't have me wanting to choke him to death for the way he treated Delaney. I dare say that I wanted to see Trystan and Delaney in a better place than she was with Ruckus.

My rating is based on the fact that Delaney and Trystan spend the whole book together and there are only minor glimpses of Ruckus, and that's only when she gets a visit with him. Throughout the book, Delaney and Trystan have to go through things like facing a bonding coordinator who needs to find out if there is any compatibility between the two, or having Delaney realize that she did, in fact, take the Uprising oath and there's no getting away from her new responsibilities as the presumed new ruler of Vakar. While Delaney and Trystan are spending time together, Delaney frets over Ruckus and her own personal freedoms. Is it any wonder that I found the ending the absolute best in the entire story? There was so much emotion, and pain, and Delaney making a choice that will definitely have lasting impact on what happens in the final chapter.    

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