[ 375 ]

[katara]

Title: Forestfall

Series: World at the Lake's Edge #2

Author: Lyndall Clipstone

Genre: Gothic, Dark, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, Young Adult, Paranormal, Magic, Fiction, LGBTQ+, Queer

Warning: Drowning Imagery, Self-Injury, Discussions of Death and Grief, Body Horror, Blood and Gore

Date Started: January 10th, 2023

Date Finished: January 10th, 2023

Status: Finished

Rating: 2.9/5

Sypnosis: Some oaths can never be broken...

The curse that haunted Lakesedge Estate has been broken, but at great cost. Violeta Graceling has sacrificed herself to end the Corruption. To escape death, Leta makes a desperate bargain with the Lord Under, one that sees her living at his side in the land of the dead.

But this world of souls and mist hides many secrets. And when Leta realizes she is still connected to Rowan by a tethering spell, she will risk everything— even her soul— to try and reach him.

Torn between power and love, life and death, Leta struggles to keep hold of her humanity as she falls further and further under the spell of the world Below… and the Lord Under.

Review: I struggled with this sequel mainly due to the fact that I honestly thought Leta would have grown and learned from her experience in the first book. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be any changes to her character. In fact, her character was still the whiney "Woah is me" character from the first book.

I get that she made the most significant sacrifice and I took that into consideration, but her character really grated on my nerves. I had to put the book down several times and either do something or seek out another book before I could come back to this one.

I loved the first book. Everything from the lush world-building to the very end of the cliffhanger kept me turning the page. That just did not happen. All the other characters were great and their character development really took off in this book but not Leta. Because of her, I nearly made this book my first DNF for the new year.

I would love to get a story of the Lord Under and his world. It seemed far more interesting than anything Leta was.