Daughter of the Tempest by Braidee Otto: ARC Review (Myths of the Empyrieos Book 2)
Overall Rating: 5/5 Spice Rating: 3/5
Thank you to The Dial Press, Braidee Otto, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book. I received it for free in exchange for an honest review, and everything below is my genuine, unbiased opinion, minus the fact that I was already fully obsessed with book one.
I have been waiting for this book since the second I closed the last page ofSongbird of the Sorrows, and Daughter of the Tempest did not make me wait around for nothing. This sequel delivers exactly what fans of the Myths of the Empyrieos series are hoping for, and honestly, a little more.
If you haven’t read book 1, Songbird of the Sorrows yet, check out my review here.
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What Daughter of the Tempest Is About
Princess Aella and her best friend Nyssa are officially the most wanted fugitives in the Empyrieos, and this book throws both of them into completely different kinds of danger.
Aella is on the run after freeing a mysterious prisoner from the Aviary, the very spy order she once swore her loyalty to. Now she is stuck with him, forming an uneasy alliance where she helps him stay hidden in exchange for learning to control the unruly magic she hopes will one day reunite her with Nyssa. As they move through cities, forests, and mountains together, Aella finds herself pulled toward the one man whose survival could destroy everything she has left, and whose secrets might run just as deep as her own.
Meanwhile, Nyssa is trapped in a different kind of danger. Suspected of helping Aella betray the Aviary, she is forced into hiding as a servant in the Southern Kingdom's palace, under the watchful eye of its condescending, petulant prince. She and Prince Kallias do not have much in common except one thing, they both want to protect Aella. With the Empyrieos Games approaching and the constant threat of discovery hanging over her, Nyssa has no choice but to trust him.
Both girls are left wondering if the other is even still alive, all while a manhunt closes in around them. To the people in power, catching them is just another move in a much bigger game. What they do not realize is the storm building inside Aella, and what it is about to unleash.
My Honest Thoughts
This book splits the story between two narrators, and I am so glad it did. We follow Nyssa as she takes on the identity of a servant hiding in plain sight in the Palace of the Sorrows, while the Eagle searches for her, hoping to use her as bait to lure Aella back to Eretria and Prince Keres. Aella's brother, Prince Kallias, reluctantly agrees to help her, and watching their dynamic build chapter by chapter was one of my favorite parts of the entire book.
On the other side, Aella is taken by Xan, and as they spend more time together, something starts to spark between them. It is a slow burn in every sense of the word, and after everything Raven put Aella through in book one, I was craving exactly this kind of tension.
We also get so much more of Aella's backstory here, along with a deeper look at who Xan really is. If you finished book one still piecing together the bigger picture of this world, this installment fills in a lot of those gaps in the best way.
Otto is truly the queen of the cliffhanger. She ended Songbird of the Sorrows on a gut punch, and Daughter of the Tempest somehow leaves us wanting even more by the final page. The world building in this series continues to be incredibly rich and immersive, and Otto's writing just keeps getting more beautiful. She is proving, book after book, that she is here to stay as a serious voice in fantasy romance.
If you loved book one, this sequel is everything you have been hoping for.
Who Should Read Daughter of the Tempest?
If you love fantasy romance with dual points of view, slow burn tension, richly built worlds, and an author who is not afraid to end a book with your heart in your throat, this series needs to be on your list. Fans of Rebecca Yarros, Callie Hart, and Penn Cole will feel right at home here.
