Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Happy Monday, Readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Erika Johansen's second installment in the Queen of the Tearling series, Invasion of the Tearling.

With the Mort Queen's soldiers at their border, things are looking bleak for the Tearling and it seems it's only a matter of time before they reach New London. Until then, though, Kelsea continues to search for a way to defeat her enemy. When Kelsea begins to have visions of another woman in a very different time and place, it seems an answer to her problems may be forthcoming. But only if she can decipher the meaning of the visions and her connection to them. 

This book. This book! I had trouble summing this up coherently and just as much trouble reviewing it. I loved it - it's completely amazing - but you need more than that don't you, readers?

First I'll say that this is not only a worthy successor to the first in the series, The Queen of the Tearling, but that Johansen has taken the story to completely unexpected places. I found with the first outing that this series was very similar in a lot of ways to Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns. Happily, these similarities end completely with Invasion.

We left Queen with just a hint of what was to come and just a tiny bit of information about the world prior to the Tear. With Invasion we're given a much better look at the origins of the Tear and where the people who inhabit it come from - via Lily.

Oh, Lily! I love Lily! Holy crap! Her story, which Kelsea sees through visions, was such a surprise. Honestly, I did expect some exploration of the world's history but not in this way.

Don't think this means that Kelsea or the happenings of Mortmesne and the Tearling take a backseat, though. Lily's story is woven in fabulously while Kelsea continues to try to find ways to heal her kingdom AND defeat their enemy. All of this means a lot of stress for our heroine, stress she's dealing with in possibly damaging ways. Tearling and Kelsea are on the brink and it's only a matter of time before we'll find out whether they'll end in disaster or rise to truly great heights. (Til book three releases, anyway.)

Rating: 5/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on the series, you can visit the official Queen of the Tearling site here. You can also like the series on Facebook.