The Boundless by Anna Bright

When Selah found true love with Prince Torden of Norway, she never imagined she’d have to leave him behind. All because the Beholder’s true mission was a secret Selah’s crew didn’t trust her to keep: transporting weapons to the rebels fighting against the brutal tsarytsya, whose shadow looms over their next port of Shvartsval’d. A place Selah hoped she’d never go.

But gone is the girl who departed Potomac filled with fear. With a stockpile of weapons belowdecks and her heart hanging in the balance, Selah is determined to see the Beholder’s quest to its end.

Look at that cover. Just look at it. It's amazingly beautiful. Every time I picked up my Kindle and saw it, I smiled.

Unfortunately, I picked up my Kindle a lot, because I kept putting it down. I wasn't absorbed in the story. I said in my review of the first one that a map would really have helped, and I still hold to that here; this strange, fairytales-grafted-onto-the-real-world version of Europe could do with one. (It could also do with a recap, but that's my perennial cry when it comes to sequels.)

Selah hasn't given up on love; even though she's 'in love' with Torden, she and Lang flirt heavily every time they meet, and she starts trying with another prince as well. It makes her seem very fickle. Ok, the point of the endeavour was a political marriage, but when it only takes her a day or two to get over each fallen love, it doesn't reflect well.

My other major problem is Anya. Why does she volunteer to go into torture and possible death with Selah, when Selah herself is begging her not to? (For story purposes, it's so that

she's there when Alexsei has his heel/face turn.

But I just can't make sense of it in the story.)

 This isn't awful. It's readable, it's exciting, it's fun picking out the other fairy tales mashed into it. It's just not great, unfortunately.