Nine Shadows
This is the second installment of my YA high fantasy series, also known as the Ember Series. It takes place about a year after the ending of the first book, The Ember in the Winter, and there are four narrators: Ezra Chandler and Morana Altair (which were the two from TEITW), but there's also two new people: Aurelia Altair and Killian Gessora, who is known as the God of Stealth and Deception.
What's In It?
Recommended Age Group: 16+
Nine Shadows is notorious with beta-readers to be quite the emotional rollercoaster. It's meant for more mature audiences compared to that of TEITW, with very sensitive topics addressed, such as self-harm, cult-like behaviours, gore, suicidal thoughts, extreme grief, death, and graphic depictions of violence/war.
As I said before, it takes place about a year after the events of The Ember in the Winter. You follow Ezra and Morana in Vellamo, a city northwest of Aesira, and Aurelia and Killian, back down in Aesira, where they try to keep the peace settled with those down in the Báile an Bháis.
While it's dark, Nine Shadows does have its happy elements, as well. There continues to be found family (even more so than in TEITW, I like to think), loads more of political intrigue, an expand on the worldbuilding, and just the characters being goofballs, when the time calls for it, of course. Overall, it's one of my absolute favourites of this series, but it is definitely a heavier book than TEITW or the one that comes after it, Phoenix in the Stars. The last two books are a whole other story, I'm afraid.