Heir of Doom by Jina S. Bazzar (Roxanne Fosch Files #2) – Book Review

I like series, where each book is a continuation from the previous, answers some questions but also has some questions pending to be answered, and do not end on a massive cliffhanger! And Jina S. Bazzar’s second book in the Roxanne Fosch Files, has all of this 🙂

I had the pleasure of reading the ARC for the first book and if you want to read my thoughts on that one, you can check it out here. Thank you, Jina, for sharing a copy of the second book with me, in exchange for a fair review 🙂 I just don’t feel satisfied with owning the e-books now, and I’m itching to go and order the paperbacks for both books 1 and 2 now 😀

First things first, trigger warnings. Similar to the first book, there is a lot, and I mean a lot of action, bloody, gory scenes in the book. If that is not your scene, probably best to reconsider. There is also the continued theme of abandonment and the longing to belong somewhere, belong to a family, in the second book – not just from Roxanne, but from other characters too. Again, if that is something that is a difficult subject for you, better take a second opinion, or get into the book with something stronger than coffee 😉 Cheers!

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but you do have to read the first book in order to fully appreciate and even follow what’s going on in the second book. Although, the challenges in the second book are slightly different, the friends and foes are common and there are quite a few references to the previous book.

I enjoyed reading the second book as much as I had enjoyed reading the first book, and finished it in a span of 3 days, stealing time from all my breaks and sleep time too- it was that entertaining and fast paced! So, here are some of my continued thoughts on the second book of the series, now that I’ve read a few more YA fantasy books (if not series..lol) and understand some of the concepts people talk about while reviewing a YA novel 🙂

• World building: I thought that because there were so many different characters and clans coming from different planets across the Universe, in this series, if Jina attempted to build a detailed World like the Lord of the Rings, we’d probably have a book for each clan..just saying! And I would’ve lost patience. Lol. So, I liked the fact that she has described, just to the right amount of detail for someone like me, the different worlds of some of the clans – the Sidhe Land, the Tristan Star, The Lowlands
• Genealogy: Oh my gosh, I was so confused with all the Genealogy mentioned, that I actually had to get a notebook and start drawing the family chart in there! So many terms and back stories for each character, that if I hadn’t started drawing them, I would’ve completely lost the plot! I’m just amazed at the level of thought the author must have given while writing this and how she created all the terms and the clans or the family tree or the history of each character. But this is the most important part or theme of the book in my mind. The history is very important to understand how the story for our lead character Roxanne will progress
• Action and twists: Lots and lots of action. Punches, kicks, gashes, healing, getting punched again, combat training, action with magic, lots of stuff to keep someone like me hooked. I haven’t read a YA fantasy book with action like this yet, the ones I have started or finished have a lot of magic sort of action, but I haven’t read the Throne of Glass series, so I’m guessing I will find something similar in those books? Now twists, I have heard a lot of reviews on how there are books that shock with their twists, or deaths of pivotal characters, I didn’t think this book intends to do that for its readers. There are some major twists, but nothing that will terribly shock the reader or send him/her reeling, saying, what! what?! Good for the readers of feeble heart I guess..hehe
• Romance: So, I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit of a sucker for the concept of ‘falling in love or noticing the one you might end up with slowly’. I don’t want to give away spoilers again, but looks like we might have a new addition to Roxanne’s romantic interest in the second book, and I’m not complaining for one about that, because I thought the interaction between the two was just the way I like it – slow, friendly, caring, funny at times and with literally some electric current 😉
• Character Arcs and Supporting characters: Frizz is back!!! And I was so happy to see him playing such a major role in the second book! Where can I get a ‘familiar’ like him now? Also, some new characters are introduced, while some old characters are put on the back foot. I wasn’t sure if I was too happy about Logan becoming a bit of a back foot character in the second book, especially since he had a major role in the first book 🙂 I was completely with Roxanne in this book. She is still vulnerable but starts to learn to trust and bring people into her inner circle. She starts to open up but is also badly hurt, both physically and emotionally by members of the clan who took her in. There were many times in the book when I could literally feel her emotional pain, her outrage at being alone or her sorrow of not having a family who really cared for her. I almost cried for her in some of the last scenes, I’m with you girl.

I am hooked and really looking forward to the next book. I’m not sure if this is going to be a trilogy (maybe a question for the author), or a longer running series – but either way, looking forward to what happens next 🙂

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39902049-heir-of-doom

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Heir-Doom-Roxanne-Fosch-Files-ebook/dp/B07N91VGCR/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=heir+of+doom&qid=1550747731&s=gateway&sr=8-1

To the readers:

• Have you read the Roxanne Fosch  books? The first, the second or both or neither?
• If you have read them, I’d love to discuss your views in the comments
• If not, that’s alright too 🙂 Would love to hear your thoughts on books that cover all of some of the topics above, with respect to YA fantasy, that you think I should add to my TBR 🙂