Title: The Invasion of the Tearling
Author: Erika Johansen
Pages: 515
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Source: Owned print
Rating: A+
Review: Admittedly, I am writing this review after having read both this book and the final in the series – The Fate of the Tearling – back to back. That being the case, it is impossible for me to review Invasion without consideration of the overall experience.
As always seems to be the case in trilogies, this second in series – The Invasion of the Tearling – is my favorite. Maybe it’s because there is so much meat in the middle of a story. We know the characters pretty well because of the first book, so they seem like old friends. We’re already thoroughly entrenched in the world because of…the first book. So, for the second book, it’s all about story. And what a story!
Kelsea goes through so many changes in this book. Not only maturing, but becoming something – someone – perhaps quite different from what anyone expected, including herself. We learn a great deal about the gems around her neck, and we get flashbacks to the Crossing. Remember in my review of the first book when I said that the little tidbits about the BEFORE – which was actually our current era– was a bit confusing? And that it was hard to mesh the idea of being 300 years later and living like people prior to the Industrial Revolution? But then I also said that we should just go with it and trust the author’s vision? Yeah. All of that. In spades. Because in this book, she makes it work. It all comes together in this unbelievably exciting twist that brings in numerous new elements and characters. Finally, a story that feels fresh and different!
This book was top notch. I loved it. I immediately started reading the next (and last book), and I suggest that you have it ready and waiting because you will want to do the same.