The Almost King by Lucy Saxon
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 400
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★
Series: Take Back The Skies 
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I have to say that after finishing this book, I’m not entirely sure what the point was. The main plot lines consist of: Aleks finds a journal detailing the horrible plans that the reader already knew about from Take Back The Skies, Aleks builds a new life for himself including love interest, Aleks goes on a mission to discover new land but nothing really comes of it. To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement. I really enjoyed the first book, even though I was frustrated with the ending. At the very least I wanted the sequel to evoke the same feelings, but this time the ending was so frustrating because it just seemed too happily ever after in comparison!

I know that this series is a companion series, therefore each book is with a whole new cast of characters, but, from what I remember, the only link was the journal with the robot army information. It would’ve been nice to at least hear a little bit about how the new King and Queen were getting on! As for the new characters, I didn’t think they were particularly unique. I kept waiting for the big conflict to happen, but apart from this one guy whose name evades me, all of the characters were nice and welcoming. They basically made Aleks a member of their family! So, even though I had no real reason to worry, I found myself constantly waiting for something bad to happen. Even when things kind of did start to go wrong, I couldn’t feel sympathetic because Luca was the ex machina literally every time.

One of the main characters did die, but they weren’t introduced until half way though the novel and quite a bit after the skyship was discovered, so I wasn’t touched by his death. His sacrifice was necessary for Aleks, but I wasn’t as shocked as I was by the events of Take Back The Skies.

Saria, the love interest, was a slightly conflicted character and I wasn’t entirely sure what her ending was going to be. I’m not sure I totally agree with the idea that they can just put their pasts behind them in the form of a compromise, and the fact that she didn’t trust Aleks and yet he still loved her every second was extremely aggravating.

Considering I had so much to say about the first book, mainly because of its controversial ending, this read was a comparative non-event for me and so I have only given it 2 stars. The writing was still excellent, and the world building was also exceptionally well done, yet I just couldn’t get into the story as a whole. It felt like one long wild goose chase for a happy ending.