Hi everyone. I'm Catriona and today I'm
going to be doing a spoiler-free review
of Raelia by Lynette Noni.
This is the second book in the Akarnae series,
(*The Medoran Chronicles)
so before I go into anything about the
synopsis or my proper review,
I'm just going to give a really brief overview
of my thoughts without going into any specifics,
just so you can get an idea of what I thought
of this book if you haven't read Akarnae,
because the rest of this review,
while it will be spoiler-free for Raelia,
there's gonna be some spoilers for Akarnae,
the first book, because that's just bound to
happen even when I'm talking about the synopsis.
Overall, I really enjoyed Raelia.
Moreso than I liked Akarnae, the first book in the series.
Things are definitely taken up a notch.
We get more of the characters,
more of the world. We see more of the
things happening at Akarnae Academy.
We get more of character growth and development,
and we get more of that really fun
and cruisy writing style that makes
just for a really fast read.
This was a great sequel and the way that things end in
Raelia you need the third book, Draekora.
And luckily that book is now out so
you don't have to wait. You can just jump
straight into the third book and you
definitely will want to when you finish this.
So if you haven't read Akarnae I would
continue watching this review with caution,
but if you are interested in my
thoughts of the first book I will leave a
link to my review of that in the description.
I think I'm still gonna be super vague
with my synopsis of Raelia
just because there's so much
that you discover in these books that I
think it's more enjoyable going into
them not knowing too much.
But all I will say is that Alex returns to
Akarnae Academy for her second year
and while she is still kind of learning
to harness her own abilities and
learning more about the world of Medora,
there is still that looming threat of Aven.
I really enjoy learning more about the world of
Medora and even after spending a year at
Akarnae Academy there are still things
that we're kind of discovering as well.
But we also get to explore more of the world
outside of Akarnae Academy and the library.
We actually kind of delve into a
bit of Meya as well. In exploring some
more of the world we are introduced to
some new characters and we also get to
see some of the other different types of
abilities that people have in Medora.
So there's definitely a lot of exploration physically.
I really enjoyed getting to see more
of the world that Alex finds herself in.
But there is a lot of self exploration
as well, because the revelations
that came about in Akarne particularly
with Alex's ability, she's kind of
learning more about how everything works
and learning more about herself so
there's definitely a lot of that
self-discovery happening. And because of
that we see Alex grow a lot as a
character and I really enjoyed seeing
her grow particularly in strength in her
mind and physically as well.
Like the classes that she's subjected to at
Akarnae Academy definitely are quite grueling.
One thing that I mentioned in my review of
Akarnae was how I felt like in that book
the narration style felt quite young.
It almost read like a middle grade rather
than a young adult and I found that in
this book things have definitely kind of matured.
So alongside Alex growing as a character
and maturing herself even
though she's not that much older,
the narration style really does reflect
that maturation. One of the things that
I really loved and found so refreshing
in the first book was the lack of romance.
There was much more of an
emphasis on the friendships and there's
kind of like a tiny hint at a romance,
that there might be something that
happens later on in the series but there's
nothing more than that tiny tiny little hint.
And in Raelia we see a little bit more,
not much at all, just a teensy bit more.
It was really really like a half step forward,
and I'm just really really loving
how slow burning this is,
and because of this really slow
progression the romance is actually kind
of starting out as like a blossoming
friendship with the possibility of
something else happening later down the
track and in that way it's also
contributing to that real emphasis of
friendship in these books.
Speaking of friendships, I love how much
more we get to see of DC in this one.
I'm all for those female friendships.
Of course we also continue to see some more of
Jordan and Bear, characters I absolutely love.
And together these four friends just
love each other so fiercely and you can
really see how much they care for each
other in this book. As I mentioned before
we also get to meet some new characters
and in particular we're introduced to
some of the Meyarins. These are the
immortal beings that live in Meya,
and my goodness, Lynette has a way of
making you instantly fall in love with characters.
When I first met Roka I was
kind of shipping Alex with him but then
I quickly realized that that would never
happen, so I started shipping myself with him.
And then there's Zain, who has this kind of
rough charm about him and I absolutely
loved the banter between him and Alex.
It was absolutely hilarious. That dialogue
was just really really enjoyable.
Overall a really solid sequel. I just love all of
the fun and adventures that we're taken on
alongside Alex and at first I couldn't
quite decide what I wanted to rate this
one but after reading the third book, Draekora,
I've settled on four stars for this one,
because Draekora kind of blew my mind.
I will be doing a full review
of that book in the coming weeks,
(*tomorrow hehe)
so look forward to that as well but just know
I loved it. Oh my goodness. So those are
my thoughts on Raelia by Lynette Noni.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and if
any of you have read Raelia I'd definitely
love to hear what you thought about it but
please be careful of spoilers in the comment section.
But I think that's all that I have for this video.
So thank you for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.
 Bye!
