Firstly I would like to give a HUGE thankyou to Orion Publishing for sending me this ARC ~ honestly I cannot thankyou enough!!! After co-hosting a read along to Red Queen back in September 2015 with my friends Katrine @bookish.insta & Hailee @thesebooklions , I have been DYING to get my hands on this book and when Orion contacted me I literally screamed!!! Glass Sword is the second book in the Red Queen series written by best-selling author Victoria Aveyard. This book is available for purchase from the 11th of Feburary 2016 from all bookstores (I think, I know the main ones for the UK are Waterstones and WHsmith). You can also pre-order online at Amazon or any online bookstore.  For anyone concerned this review will be SPOILER FREE but will contain spoilers for RED QUEEN so if you haven’t read the first book yet…

A- WHY?!

B- GO READ IT AND COME BACK!!!

About The Author

Victoria Aveyard is a screenwriter/ YA author who likes books and lists. Her genres include YA, Fantasy, Historical, Adventure and Apocalyptic. She was born and raised in East Longmedow, Massachusetts, a small town known only for the worst roundabout in the United States.

She moved to Los Angeles to earn a BFA in screenwriting at the University of Southern California. She currently splits her time between the East and West coasts. As an author and screenwriter, she uses her career as an excuse to read too many books and watch too many movies.

Find out more at www.victoriaaveyard.com

Or follow her on Twitter @VictoriaAveyard

The Blurb

If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.

Mare’s blood is red – the colour of common folk – but her silver ability, the power to control lightening, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court wants to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from the prince and friend who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: that she is not the only one of her kind.

Persued by the Silver King, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

My Review

Firstly AHHHHHHH the wait is sooooooo worth it guys I swear!!!! I literally cannot even deal. This was just what I needed to get me back into YA after reading countless books for Englsih Literature at college!! Although I found it slow at times (this was mainly because it took me so long to read because of college work that had to be done *sigh* not long till its over 😀 ) I literally cannot explain how amazing this books was. It certainly lives up to Red Queen. I was so afraid about what would happen to Mare after Red Queen but Victoria continued her journey SPECTACULARLY. My HEART.

*spoilers for RED QUEEN (NOT glass sword) ahead*

Okay so if you’ve read Red Queen you know about the HUGE plot twist at the end. Like Victoria WHY YOU HURT US LIKE THAT. I honestly did ship Maven and Mare  b u t   I did ship Cal and Mare SO MUCH MORE. And when Maven turned out to be a little snake like his mother (Queen Elara) I was upset for a bit because so was Mare but then I was like CAL MARE OMG. Sirius though *laughs at myself…see what I did there ;)* anyone else it honestly can’t be just me??? CALLLLL😍

This book for me felt a little like the Peeta & Gale (THG) / JACE aka BAE & Simon (TMI) situations bcs of that recurrent love triangle we see in all YA books nowerdays, yes guys it’s still there!! However it is slightly different to the love triangle we see in book #1. DONT WORRY YOU WILL LOVE IT BUT ALSO BE SAD BUT ITS OKAY bcs YOU WILL LOVE IT.

In Glass Sword we explore and gain a bit more information about the Scarlet Guard which I LOVED. It was so interesting finding out more about where they originated from and who started the Scarlet Guard (too an extent were still unsure about all of it). We also got a bit more of a characterisation of Farley (WE GET SOME HUGE NEWS ABOUT HER GUYS!!). I loved hearing more of Farley’s story which intertwines with another character we know about… You shall seeeeeeeee;) & there was also a slight hinting of something that her character may be towards the end of the book and if I’m right I honestly CANNOT wait for book 3!!!!!

What I also loved about this book was the world building Victoria has done. This is mainly because WE SEE MORE OF THE WORLD!!! I loved seeing other parts of the world outside of Notra and the different rulers *hint we go over oceans* 😀

Another thing I LOVED about this book is how Mare searches for the ‘New-Bloods’ using the list Julian gives to her. It was soooooo exciting but then there was also plot twists VICTORIA WHY. I honestly did love reading this search however there were times when it made the pace of the book seem seem rather slow but I think this was possibly because there were short bursts of action which had me hooked and then I was just waiting again for the next burst of action. But this did not put me off as I was still desperate to find out what would happen next.

The main prospect of this book is ‘Kneel or Bleed’ and Mare fights to do what is right to save the new-bloods like herself “Rise, Red As The Dawn”. At the end of the book we find out if Mare chooses to ‘Kneel or Bleed’. I was personally upset with Mare’s desicion however it does make me extremely excited to find out what happens in the next book.

!!!!! PLEASE GIVE ME BOOK THREE !!!!!

I want to say so much more but I also don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I’m afraid this is all I have to say… for now 😉

My Rating

For a book that I literally couldn’t wait to read & was literally screaming about when it ended I give this book 5/5 stars