Daughter of Lies and Ruin is the second book in the Tales of the Blackbone Witches series. Unfortunately, I think it had that typical second-book syndrome...where it doesn't quite live up to the first book and almost feels like filler to just get to the (hopefully) third book.

Elodie grew a lot over the course of the first book and I was hopeful to see that continue, but she was more concerned with what her mentor, Aleida was doing than anything else. I really enjoyed Elodie's character, but in this book not as much. The relationship between her and Aleida didn't feel as organic.

That being said, the book is overall an enjoyable, fast-paced read and I do look forward to another in this series. The writing is descriptive and immersive and I'm fully invested in Elodie's journey at this point.

Thank you Voyager via NetGalley for the e-copy to read and honestly review. ( )

As good a sequel as you could ask for. Elodie's basic goodness and compassion slowly force Aleida to not only look inside, but realize that change toward, shall we say, chaotic good isn't such a terrible thing. Sly humor, interesting new players and plenty of action make this a fast and very enjoyable read. ( )

Daughter of Lies and Ruin by Jo Spurrier is the second book in the Tales of the Blackbone Witches, following on (in an episodic way) from A Curse of Ash and Embers, which I previously reviewed and which introduces the main characters. Although the second book follows on from the first, the stories in both are entirely self-contained.

In Daughter of Lies and Ruin we see Dee and Aleida on the road, tending to some business in another region, when they start noticing strange magical things happening around them. When Aleida says they shouldn't get involved... well what stories would there be if protagonists could ignore trouble when they stumbled upon it?

In this book the dynamic between Dee and Aleida is very different to the first book. They are no longer getting to know each other and have fallen into a stable teacher-apprentice relationship, wherein both characters influence the other. So while Aleida teaches Dee magic, it's also nice to see Dee's empathy starting to rub off (a tiny bit) on Aleida. I also appreciated the aspect of magical worldbuilding whereby different witches have different strengths and Dee does not have the same strengths as her teacher so can't necessarily be taught directly in all forms of magic.

And then there's the new characters we meet in this book. We get another spunky teenaged girl, but one who is spunky in a different way to Dee (and introduces her to the concept of trousers on women), there's a surprising number of bandits, and an antagonist who isn't even doing it out of malice. I won't say more for fear of spoiling too much, but the combination made for an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed Daughter of Lies and Ruin and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first book or who enjoys epic fantasy. I believe this series is being marketed as YA, however, although the protagonist is sixteen, it feels more like a BFF (big fat fantasy) book to me than a YA book (lengthwise it's probably somewhere between BFF and YA). Jo Spurrier continues to be one of my favourite Aussie fantasy writers, and I will continue buying every book she writes.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )