Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White (Song of the Last Kingdom, Band 2)

With Lan and Zen separated at the beginning of the story, both their journeys could be treated equally, and both had enough time in their POVs to develop their own arc. This warmed my heart, and then I found myself wanting them to reunite and oh...all the feels. Both are still on a quest to destroy the Demon Gods, and I don't wanna tell more about it so that I'm not spoiling. I loved this world full of Asian mythology and so incredibly rich. I sure hope we'll get a chance someday to journey there again and learn more. The characters are great - besides Lan and Zen there's really interesting and funny side characters. The story is being brought to a satisfying end (but beware: all the feels), and I left this series satisfied and with a really good feeling. 4,5/5 stars Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for the eARC! #LastKingdom #netgalley #bookstagram

BEWARE! SPOILERS BELOW! I loved how all the pieces fit together in the end and the books message about balance. Lan and Zen really embodied that and their love felt so real and so heart-breaking… I also really enjoyed the author‘s writing style and the mix of descriptions of the scenery as well as scenes packed with action. It felt very well-balanced to me (haha) The only thing that fell flat for me (but did not take away from the rating!) was the last chapter. There were some questions I would have liked to have answered: who leads the country now and how do they lead? It‘s mentioned that it‘s still a Kingdom so who‘s the King (or Queen)? And what happened to the demonic practitioners Zen raised from the grave? I assume they perished when Zen died but what happened to them? Can they be woken up again? Are they just lying in the capital now or did they magically transport themselves back to their home? What did the surrender of the Elantians encompass? I want to know more T.T

well this was certainly something when i read the first book I couldn't stop so I ended up reading it almost in one sitting. this book though? it took me almost 100 pages to get into it which is around 25%. every time i went to pick it up i instantly didn't want to read anymore. it just took so long for the story to take off and get going. BUT! but then the story really started and it felt incredibly fast paced so i once again ended up reading it in almost one sitting (around 65% today) i think it's an interesting and incredibly well written book and it's definitely a good end to the duology. i would've wished for the start of this book to be a little bit faster but I can't have everything