"Shadow Scale" by Rachel Hartman

Shadow Scale is a highly anticipated sequel to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. The novel was released on March 10, 2015. I was fortunate enough to get an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. It is always hard to review sequels without giving any spoilers but I will do my best to make this as spoiler free as possible.

In Shadow Scale we get to see the world outside of Goredd. The narrative picks up right where the first novel left off.  Dragons are embroiled in a civil war and humans and half-dragons find themselves caught in between. Seraphina travels to neighboring countries to gather the rest of half-dragons since they appear to have a unique ability to fight dragons. Seraphina's objective is to bring them to Goredd to ensure protection of peaceful populace. She also secretly hopes to befriend others like herself who share both dragon and human heritage.

I really enjoyed the quest aspect of this book. Hartman is an amazing story-teller and her depictions of various fantastical places and cultures are vivid and rich. We also get to know some new fascinating characters - most of them were only briefly mentioned in the first book. Abdo plays a much more prominent role in this story and we also finally learn more about the mysterious Jannoula. She was mentioned in the first book several times, but all we knew about her was that Seraphina feared her and had some unpleasant experience with her in the past.

I did have a couple of problems with the plot. Seraphina's uncle Orma does not play much of a role in this book at all. Even though Seraphina spends quite a bit of time searching for him, he only makes a brief appearance at the very end of the story. Kiggs' character was a bit disappointing to me also. As the main protagonist's love interest, I expected him to be more interesting.  His character does not undergo any development at all. He mostly stays in the background and does not play much of a role in the main story line. Also, I did not like how the romantic relationship was tied off at the end. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say I think Seraphina deserves more.

Despite these issues which other readers might or might not agree with, the book is a great read. I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is over 600 pages in length but I literally flew through it and enjoyed it immensely. If you liked Seraphina and are wondering whether to pick up the sequel, I would definitely say; go for it. Hartman has built an amazing world and I thoroughly enjoyed this installment.