Talia' story continues right where the previous book left. Our heroine finished her studies and the only thing which stands between her and her acceptance into being a full Herald is one and a half years of internship. Basically she has to patrol the borderlands in the north dispensing Queen's justice and helping defend against the raiders. During one of very heavy snowfalls Talia is trapped with her mentor Kris in a lone shack in the middle of nowhere. The spend most of the book brooding in the...

If you love Tamora Pierces Lioness you will l think you will love Talia just as much as me.Talias beginning in book one was heartbreaking and its so good to see Talia grow into herself and her own power. I loved also how it is normal for Heralds to be women, and how the women Talia surround herself with are so different from her. You dont need to be one type of woman to be strong and powerful.I loved to see Elspeths continuing growth and her attitude change is great from book one.Also how Talias...

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Book 2...This is not the first 2nd book of a trilogy I've read to suffer from 'dark gloomy valley of emotional despair' syndrome. 1st books are about beginnings, new things and getting to know characters. 3rd books are about resolutions and endings. Middle books are about... slogging through.Do they have to be? I'm not so sure, but I also don't know if I've read enough to give an accurate judgment. What I *DO* know is I did not enjoy this se...

This is very much a middle book, taking place mostly in a very short time frame, but Lackey makes it oh-so enjoyable nonetheless. It is somewhat darker/ more mature than the first book. Talia is grown-up, and has a *lot* of hard work to do. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, hold her tight, but she's a "little bird" and she needs to grow strong enough for not only independence but adversity, and to fledge her wings and fly.(Little bird is a sort of pet name, sort of respectful nickname. Not pa...

Poor Talia. I'd say she hits rock bottom here, but I've finished the trilogy and I know better than to say that.

Talia's 4-5 years of Herald training has come to an end and she's finally getting into her whites. Now all that's left is her 2 year circuit riding where she's partnered with a Senior Herald and learns to dispense justice. As suits her upbringing she's put on a circuit that's right on the border of Valdemar near the Forest of Sorrow where the legendary Vanyel died and laid a curse upon the woods. Talia's partnered with pretty boy Kris who is Talia's opposite. He was born to a privileged elite fa...

When Arrow's Fight begins, it is immediately apparent that the style of this novel will be different than its predecessor. Lackey has given the reader most of the background they need on Heralds. We're no longer learning about who they are and what they do in an scholastic setting (or being explained to as Talia "processes" this information). Instead, we are learning through Talia's experiences. I am thankful that this book is more character-focused. Not that Arrows of the Queen wasn't focused o...

Talia has problems with her empathy in this book, which I liked because everything within her own power seemed to come far to easily in the first novel. Two people of opposite sex are snowed in on the road, make out, and it does not lead to everlasting love and babies. I really like Lackey's style.2017 Reread Update: The little touches really make this story last the test of time where other genre fiction from the time often seems dated. Abortion is absolutely a reasonable option for a rape vict...

Oh dear. Oh my. Oh dear. What am I going to do with you?To say I was a disappointed with this book would be an understatement. I was ready to two star this, but, I had to concede that it wasn't a bad book. It just had a lot of bad elements to it and it could have been so. Much. Better!The long and short of it, is that this book suffers heavily from middle book syndrome. The second in a trilogy with only a few key things that need to happen and a lot of the rest feels like just filler.It occurred...

Yeah I laid it aside. With giggles and dances still going on a quarter of the way through the book and continual thoughts about lovers, life partners, marriage...and aour young girl now qualified to be the next Queen...as noted laid it aside. Not really "my cup of tea". Enjoy if it's for you.

This was a very frustrating read, enough so that I gave up partway through. Given the enjoyment I got from the first book in the series, it was very disappointing. Why? Where to begin...let's try making a list:1) One of the things I enjoyed most about book 1, Arrows of the Queen, was Talia's growth from an abused, repressed child to a confident, wise-beyond-her-years Herald. For this installment in the series, the author undoes all of Talia's emotional growth and reverts her back to that insecur...

3.5 starsI liked this one more than the first but I still found some things unsatisfying. I liked that we got a more contained story than the first one, and things are still being set up for the intrigue at court even though we don't spend any time in court during this book, since Talia's starting her internship which means a year and a half on tour in one of the border sectors. They don't leave court behind entirely since some rumors about Talia's Gift follows them, and this causes problems for...

While I still greatly enjoyed this, there were a few parts that annoyed me. I loved seeing the completion of Talia's training as a Herald, though I found it frustrating to read about her particular troubles, as I felt like it just dragged on repetitively. (view spoiler)["Oh no, my control over my Empathy powers are shot! But I can't tell Kris" is repeated at least 3 times. (hide spoiler)] I was also reminded, as in the way of these things of events that will happen in the next book which I think...

Probably closer to 3.5 stars but rounding up. I enjoyed it, but not as much as Arrows of the Queen. I recently learned that the trilogy was originally written as one book and split into three; it makes the stopping points make more sense. I think this one moved a little more slowly than the first one, but it dealt with more interesting topics. Onto the third...

In this second part, the girl of the first book is now a woman, so suitable to undertake her first mission in the most remote areas of the Kingdom. There she will encounter difficult weather conditions, wicked and violent people and many signs that something is wrong, but the biggest difficulties are internal as she tries to learn to control her powers and overcome doubt, internal and external, in a way which requires a lot of effort, a lot of anger and a lot of tears. Apart from being a servant...

I'm tired of having to struggle for what seems to come easily to everyone else.I started this book more than a month ago, but only got about 20 pages in before I was absorbed in something else. I picked it up again today, and started again from the beginning.I enjoyed reading it, but it felt a bit like both too little and too much happened over the course of about 300 pages. There was some interesting character development, and I continue to like Talia as a protagonist, but there was very little...

Finally continuing on the Heralds books. Interesting though choppy book with some highs and lows, but probably enough to get me to read the last one!

This is the second in the authors 'Arrows' trillogy and I would strongly recommend reading the first before you read this one. The characters were established in the first book, as was the background to the story and I doubt if one could enjoy it as much without that background as a recap does not really cut it. It would also probably help if you had previous acquaintance with Mercades Lackeys Valdemar books.Talia has finally earned the rank of full Herald, as well as having established a positi...

This book continues the story of Talia as she serves her year of apprenticeship with the heralds.It’s nice to see her step away from politics and have to deal with actually being on the road and putting her training into practice. It was also fun to get to know another character who was only briefly mentioned in the first book. I did find this book to be a bit dull, however. A lot of time is spent on how Talia is having trouble with her powers and the endless feedback loop of her being unsure of...

While the first volume of this trilogy set the stage for the story, this second one threw the main character, Talia, Queen's Own, to the wolves. Queen's Own is second only to the queen. She is expected to be totally honest with the queen in a way that most people are unable to do. Unfortunately, Talia is sent on am 18-month long internship to a sector on the kingdom's border during a period when the court is unstable. While in her sector of the kingdom, she needs to gather control over her out-o...

Again, only a five star book because of tween girl reading nostalgia (a powerful thing). It’s nice to see more the the kingdom in this one, and for the most part I like the dynamic between Kris and Talia. The intimate parts are...awkward. And ugh, the pet names. I *hate* pet names in books like this - they never sound natural and it’s like their use is signaling intimacy that hasn’t been shown or earned. There’s some more here too about retributive justice that I think was easier to gloss over w...

Far too much of this book suffers from the I can't talk about how I am feeling or what is going wrong plot device. This turned what should have been a great book into something rather weak. It is full of angst, Talia regresses as a character and it is slow. Add in grammar and typo issues, which didn't bother me in the previous book but became much more noticeable with the lack of character or plot movement, and there wasn't a lot to love in this book. (view spoiler)[ also why would Kris sleep wi...

None of this shit ever happened to Harry Potter. Talia continues her training to become a full-fledged Herald, although during her year-long internship she faces major set backs in terms of her power and her confidence. She's out of control, constantly on the verge of breaking down and taking anyone near her down with her. While I like the fact that Talia's heroic journey isn't one straight, ascending line into awesomeness, I was not necessarily keen on reading such a bleak story at this moment

Re-read 2019Another dip into Talia's arc. This time Talia is away from the Collegium learning more of what she needs to do a Queen's Own. Re-read 2017The second book in Talia's series. It mostly focuses on her leaving the collegium and actually being a herald though she's still in training. However, it's not as simple as the description I gave sounds, multiple things happen and even though she's out of Haven issues from the city keep affecting her. Still one of my favorite series by this author....

1.5 stars - Not horrible but this book went downhill significantly compared to Arrows of the Queen. All the confidence and self esteem that Talia built in book 1 vanished, and her self pity got out of hand. I also didn't care for who was selected for her internship (and the intimate events that followed). The way of Heralds being "loose" in relationships didn't sit well with me and Talia's uncertainty made me feel depressed. Bluntly, this book sucked as book 2 but I will finish the series for th...

Book two of this trilogy. The early part of this book I enjoyed quite a bit more than the first book as there was a lot less 'magical horses' silliness and more character development. However, that was about all that happened. Great characters but little else. I have read that the final volume is a great conclusion so I will be continuing on later in the year.

Mmm, I liked the first book in the series, but in this one the main character is more grown-up, and was so preoccupied with sex and with shoveling snow that it was kind of boring and pointless. I anticipated lots of magic and fighting, of which there is hardly any, so I was disappointed. It is the second book in a trilogy, I believe, so hopefully the third book will get to the goods!

A fascinating exploration of mental health, the ethics of being a magical empath, and a disaster survival novel all in one. What a book!The premise is, Talia finally sets out on her first circuit - she goes on a year long ride with a mentor around the northern territories of Valdemar and stops at every small village and dispenses the Queen's Justice and fends off bandits and other problems.The majority of the book is spent deep in character study, as shortly after the circuit begins, her control...

This is the middle book in the first Valdemar trilogy, Valdemar being a very popular fantasy setting that features human Heralds bonded to magical intelligent Companion horses. It continues Talia's story, and I found it both better and worse than the opening installment. Better in that the prose/storytelling seemed smoother. Spoilers ahead. (view spoiler)[I wasn't, however, as strongly drawn by the character interplay. Talia spends much of the time being mentored by a Herald called Kris, who spe...

I remember reading the first book in this series and liking it, and I like the sequel just as much. Talia has nearly completed her Herald training, and all that's left is an internship where she and an older Herald patrol the border regions, keeping lines of communication open and meting out justice and doing all the usual Herald things. And it's all enjoyable enough, but it does seem like marking time - a series of episodic events that don't move the larger story forward any. I don't know that