This is the 2nd book in the Order of the Blade series. These, in my opinion, are not stand alone books.

This book picks up where the 1st one ended. Lily Davenport has been kept prisoner and tortured for 2 years by Nate Tipton, a crazy Calydon warrior who was under the influence of the evil Ezekiel who has been imprisoned in a magical prison for over two thousand years and wants out. Lily was a professor who was a renowned Calydon expert who wrote books and did seminars about the Calydon warriors who she despised. One warrior in particular she hated the most. Gideon Roarke. When Lily’s grandfather went rouge Gideon had to kill him and also his wife. All of this was done in front of their son and daughter. Year’s later Lily brother who was also a Calydon died in the crossover. Lily has always blamed Gideon for the destruction of her family. But Lily also has a tie to the Calydon warriors that she cannot break. She is a Satinka. Satinka’s have earth magic and there magic seeks out a Calydon who is worthy of her. Lily is a extremely powerful Satinka and her magic test all Calydon warriors she comes in contact with to see if he is the one. Her magic when given to a Calydon warrior makes that warrior even more powerful. After not hearing or seeing anyone for days while locked in a basement a rogue Calydon breaks down the door. As Lily tries to escape she is rescued by Gideon but as she doesn’t trust any Calydon’s and while Gideon is fighting off many more rogue Calydon’s she escapes. But Gideon catches up with her again and saves her from more warriors trying to kidnap her.

Gideon Roarke is known to be the most fearless warrior who is stone cold when it comes to emotions, that even when he watched his sheva being killed in front of him 500 hundred years ago it didn’t affect him. We find this to not be true. His internal struggle with his emotions when he first meets Lily confuses him. He has already met his sheva he shouldn’t be having the feelings he is for her. But Lily with all her knowledge of the Calaydon warriors knows that she is his sheva. This is a blow to both of them as Lily has sworn to hate Gideon and Gideon doesn’t understand how he could have a 2nd sheva and doesn’t want to go through losing one again. Even after finding out that Gideon was the one she had sworn to hate her whole life she realizes that she is not only Gideon’s sheva but also his Satinka.

For most of this book we watch as both Gideon and Lily struggle with this. They both had preconceived notions about each other and after they both tell the other about their tragic past they realize they were both wrong. Gideon’s internal struggle was very touching to watch.

As we know from the ending of the 1st book Frank Tully (who was working with Nate) had kidnapped Drew who was Dante’s son. We find out that Frank is really an illusionist like Ana and Grace and that he played a big role in what happened to Ana and Grace’s parents. Ana is confused by Frank and keeps going to him and when he ask her to get the knife with the ancient markings on it she does not knowing that Frank has evil intentions for her, Lily and Drew.

In a huge showdown at the end of the book we find out what Frank’s true intentions are. We also find out some answers to questions that we were left with in the first book but things are far from over. We will have to wait for the 3rd book which is sure to be the best.
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3.5 stars, so I'll round up. I loved Gideon's character. Lilly, not so much. Her character just felt so heavy, so much going on. I felt like instead of adding to the story, it almost took away from it. The beginning starts off running - really catching, exciting and I enjoyed it. Then after the hypothermia cure of hotdamn, please dump me in a river, Gideon! scene, it went downhill for a while. The story became muddled as several realizations were made one after the other without contemplation or follow through. You're the dick that murdered my grandparents and ruined my family, but sure, I'll have sex with you Lily's realization of who Gideon was could have led to a great point of contention/conflict - but it fell flat. And Gideon realizing who Lily was... In book one, its mentioned they all know the Dr. Lily (cant even recall her last name from the book) had been missing for two years, and Gideon says they had a dartboard with her picture on it... how many blonds named Lily in Oregon go missing for exactly two years?

Another thing that really bugged me was When lily gave Gideon her magic during that first battle in the woods, that technically should have counted towards TWO of the bound stages - she was showing him Trust and she was sacrificing herself for him.

The middle of the book dragged a bit, but picked up again near the end. Once the story started to progress I knew I would most likely be reading book 3.

One final note: The world is ending, and your thought is to go eat lasagna? ( )

This is the second book in the Order of the Blade series and it was a fun little read. It picked up where the first left off and, as expected, followed the soul mates Gideon and Lily. I liked Lily. She was a strong survivor, which is good since she also seemed like a perpetual victim. I also like Gideon. He was a strong, honourable man and anyone who has read many of my reviews knows that I like that character type a lot. Unfortunately I didn't like Lily and Gideon together very much.

I could get over the insta-love. It's really to be expected in this genre. I even accepted that they had an extra strong attraction to one another due to her magic and his whole Sheva thing. What I had trouble with was that she essentially condemned him for doing what he was supposed to. Yes, she accepted him eventually, but she still made him grieve his previous actions, grovel and apologise. I don't mean that she forced him to do it, but she made him feel like he needed to.

No doubt this was meant to be read as her bringing the ice-king to life and teaching him to feel again. In fact we're essentially told so. However, to me it just felt wrong. Soldiers do horrible things during times of war and the Order is at war. Why should he have to apologise for difficult but honourable actions? His personal need to atone undermined the unavoidable necessity of those situations. It felt like it weakened his commitment to the cause and I simply didn't like it. This is, of course, a completely personal opinion and nothing more.

The ultra baddie that they were up against kept me interested, though his minions seem awful easy to beat. I thought the ending was a little sappy for my taste, but the threads left open for Elijah and Ana's story is really tempting. I'm torn because I like the characters and would like to know more about the rest of the Order members, but I already kind of feel like I've had enough of the series. Maybe there just wasn't enough of a difference between the first and the second books. I don't know. I'm still undecided. ( )

LOOOOVED IT! I'm gonna write a review later when I have better time.! ( )