Spark (Skin Books, book 2)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
Leora is reeling: questioning everything she has ever known about her family and herself.

As half-Marked and half-Blank, can she ever wholly belong in either fractured community? Mayor Longsight wants to use her as a weapon: to infiltrate Featherstone, home of the Blanks, and deliver them to him for obliteration. Leora longs for answers about her mysterious birth mother, and Featherstone may reveal them.

But will she find solace and safety there or a viper's nest of suspicion and secrets?

Review: 
This is the sequel to Ink. In this book, Leora is sent to the blanks community to learn more about them after her discovery of being half blank in Ink. One thing that really stood out to me in this book was how it had all the same stories from the last book but this time it was a retelling from the blanks perspectives. Be interesting to see if there will be stories in the third book, as I’m not sure where Broadway could go from here.

I think since the first book, Alice Broadways writing style has improved slightly. I just feel like it was a bit more visually descriptive and the dreams were definitely more detailed and more interesting. I think this slight improvement was only noticeable for starting the second book so quickly after the first.

I really enjoyed Leora’s new friend in this book called Gull, she’s one of the blanks that accepts her. I prefer this friendship over Leora’s and Veritys. It just feels more pure and real. They get along so well.

There’s not much to say about this book that I hadn’t already said about the first book. I just really loved it too. The twists in the series, I’d say are really unpredictable which I really appreciate and enjoy. That’s what keeps pushing this book to 5 stars for me.

*SPOILERS*

One twist that really stood out for me was that Sara who was believed to be Leora’s mother's good friend but she was actually a betrayer. All she wants is a war with the marked. So she kills the mayor so that the marked will want a war with the blanks. I just didn’t expect her to be extremely sour, I knew something was off with the way she talked but I thought she just wanted a confrontation not full blown war and didn’t think she would hate Leora for being half marked. 

I think the biggest mind-blowing moment is the fact the mayor didn’t die, he has the scar of the blade but lived. And healed fast. I’m totally fine with a back from the dead moment as long as it sounds feasible, I’m hoping to get a good explanation in Scar, other than him apparently being a god. 

Overall, this book series so far has been amazing and I would recommend.

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren

Check out my review of book 3: Scar