RAELIA by Lynette NoniBOOK REVIEW

Hi everyone. I'm Catriona and today I'm going to be doing a spoiler-free review of Raelia by Lynette Noni. This is the second book in the Akarnae series,
(*The Medoran Chronicles) so before I go into anything about the synopsis or my proper review, I'm just going to give a really brief overview of my thoughts without going into any specifics, just so you can get an idea of what I thought of this book if you haven't read Akarnae, because the rest of this review, while it will be spoiler-free for Raelia, there's gonna be some spoilers for Akarnae, the first book, because that's just bound to happen even when I'm talking about the synopsis. Overall, I really enjoyed Raelia.

Moreso than I liked Akarnae, the first book in the series. Things are definitely taken up a notch. We get more of the characters, more of the world. We see more of the things happening at Akarnae Academy.

We get more of character growth and development, and we get more of that really fun and cruisy writing style that makes just for a really fast read. This was a great sequel and the way that things end in Raelia you need the third book, Draekora. And luckily that book is now out so you don't have to wait. You can just jump straight into the third book and you definitely will want to when you finish this.

So if you haven't read Akarnae I would continue watching this review with caution, but if you are interested in my thoughts of the first book I will leave a link to my review of that in the description. I think I'm still gonna be super vague with my synopsis of Raelia just because there's so much that you discover in these books that I. Think it's more enjoyable going into them not knowing too much. But all I will say is that Alex returns to Akarnae Academy for her second year and while she is still kind of learning to harness her own abilities and learning more about the world of Medora, there is still that looming threat of Aven.

I really enjoy learning more about the world of Medora and even after spending a year at Akarnae Academy there are still things that we're kind of discovering as well. But we also get to explore more of the world outside of Akarnae Academy and the library. We actually kind of delve into a bit of Meya as well. In exploring some more of the world we are introduced to some new characters and we also get to see some of the other different types of abilities that people have in Medora.

So there's definitely a lot of exploration physically. I really enjoyed getting to see more of the world that Alex finds herself in. But there is a lot of self exploration as well, because the revelations that came about in Akarne particularly with Alex's ability, she's kind of learning more about how everything works and learning more about herself so there's definitely a lot of that self-discovery happening. And because of that we see Alex grow a lot as a character and I really enjoyed seeing her grow particularly in strength in her mind and physically as well.

Like the classes that she's subjected to at Akarnae Academy definitely are quite grueling. One thing that I mentioned in my review of Akarnae was how I felt like in that book the narration style felt quite young. It almost read like a middle grade rather than a young adult and I found that in this book things have definitely kind of matured. So alongside Alex growing as a character and maturing herself even though she's not that much older, the narration style really does reflect that maturation.

One of the things that I really loved and found so refreshing in the first book was the lack of romance. There was much more of an emphasis on the friendships and there's kind of like a tiny hint at a romance, that there might be something that happens later on in the series but there's nothing more than that tiny tiny little hint. And in Raelia we see a little bit more, not much at all, just a teensy bit more. It was really really like a half step forward, and I'm just really really loving how slow burning this is, and because of this really slow progression the romance is actually kind of starting out as like a blossoming friendship with the possibility of something else happening later down the track and in that way it's also contributing to that real emphasis of friendship in these books.

Speaking of friendships, I love how much more we get to see of DC in this one. I'm all for those female friendships. Of course we also continue to see some more of Jordan and Bear, characters I absolutely love. And together these four friends just love each other so fiercely and you can really see how much they care for each other in this book.

As I mentioned before we also get to meet some new characters and in particular we're introduced to some of the Meyarins. These are the immortal beings that live in Meya, and my goodness, Lynette has a way of making you instantly fall in love with characters. When I first met Roka I was kind of shipping Alex with him but then I quickly realized that that would never happen, so I started shipping myself with him. And then there's Zain, who has this kind of rough charm about him and I absolutely loved the banter between him and Alex.

It was absolutely hilarious. That dialogue was just really really enjoyable. Overall a really solid sequel. I just love all of the fun and adventures that we're taken on alongside Alex and at first I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to rate this one but after reading the third book, Draekora, I've settled on four stars for this one, because Draekora kind of blew my mind.

I will be doing a full review of that book in the coming weeks,
(*tomorrow hehe) so look forward to that as well but just know I loved it. Oh my goodness. So those are my thoughts on Raelia by Lynette Noni. I hope you enjoyed this review, and if any of you have read Raelia I'd definitely love to hear what you thought about it but please be careful of spoilers in the comment section.

But I think that's all that I have for this video. So thank you for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye!.