The Empress, by S.J. Kincaid | ARC Book Review #283

A huge Thank You to Simon & Schuster Canada, via Netgalley for allowing me to read and review The Empress in exchange for an honest review. 

The Empress is the second book in The Diabolic trilogy. This review may contain spoilers.

It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite.

But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it?

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There is so much action and plot packed into The Empress. I felt like I lived a lifetime by the time I had finished reading this book. Then again, I started the book at midnight, and finally finished The Empress at 6am, so I was pretty tired anyway.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading The Empress. Prior to requesting The Empress on Netgalley, I didn’t even read the synopsis for the book. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and I didn’t want the book to be a let down if I read the synopsis and could predict everything that could possibly happen.

The Empress is still in one point of view, which is great. I thought that maybe halfway through The Empress, the point of view would change into Tyrus’ POV since the story was kind of leading up to that.. I’m forever grateful to know Nemesis’ POV has remained. As interesting as Tyrus’ point of view could be, I don’t particularly care for his point of view on things.

Within the story there were a few scenes in the book that were predictable.. I won’t go into detail to avoid spoilers! A few of the predictions I had made were due to hints that the story gave away anyway. Like how a character may have acted, or something someone had said, would clue me into what would happen later on. What I liked about these clues though is that when “clue-scenes” happened, something would come up and the story would move on. Then after a good amount of time had passed, the clued-in-prediction would happen.

Emotionally, The Empress is very much like an emotional rollercoaster. There were so many ups and downs, and even I was fooled for a little bit that everything was okay! I enjoyed being proved wrong. At the same time though, my inner fan is screaming “WHY?! Just let them have some peace for once!!!”

While The Empress is an emotional rollercoaster, some parts of the book felt like a tug of war. The characters would go back on forth on what they should or shouldn’t do and mistakes were made repeatedly. Which I’m 100% okay with, since the character that made the mistakes is still learning.

The end of the book has me springing for joy on a few different levels. I love that a certain someone got with a certain someone; their relationship or whatever they have is their business but I WANT TO KNOW. I also love the fact that a few characters have pretty much gone back to their “roots”, to how they were perceived in the first book, The Diabolic.

I have no inkling as to what may happen in the third book, but I am excited to read it nevertheless.

The writing in The Empress is simply addicting. There wasn’t even a minute while reading The Empress that I thought to myself “I should probably go to bed now.” I fell so easily in into this new part of Nemesis’ story!

I enjoyed reading the rollercoaster that is The Empress, and gave it 4.5 stars on GoodReads.

Happy Reading!
Adele