Book Review
Title: The Iron Will of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #2)
Author: F. C. Lee
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Rating: DNF
Review: I read The Epic Crush of Genie Lo a few months back and I love it and I have had an arc of The Iron Will of Genie Lo for a while but due to university and reading slumps I haven’t picked it up but I decided I wanted to read it before the end of 2020. The opening chapter of Iron Will begins with Genie telling her best friend, Yunie about the events of the first book and demonstrating her newfound abilities in order to get Yunie to believe her and then we jump forward to the present. After the events of the first book, Genie and Quentin have been charged by the Jade Emperor for keeping the demon population in check which means spending endless hours hearing and granting their requests but many still oppose Genie passing judgement on them until she unleashes her full powers. Genie learns two things in quick succession, one is that she is being watched and assessed on how well she is fulfilling the Mandate from the Jade Emperor and if she isn’t doing well enough she can be replaced, and the second is that there is another demon threat being whispered about, even larger than Red Boy from the first novel. The opening of Iron Will was interesting and reintroduces to the characters we love, especially Quentin but nothing really interesting happens but I have a feeling it might start happening the moment Genie leaves for her trip with Yunie.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Genie and Yunie are preparing to go away on their trip but I am getting a little bored as we are almost 15% in and nothing has happened so I am hoping it will pick up soon or I am going to have to DNF it. Things take a far more dramatic turn when Genie’s mother’s health decline due to a heart condition that not even Guanyin can heal. In the aftermath, Genie is seriously conflicted and struggling to deal with the overwhelming emotions which she takes out on Quentin, but it drives a major wedge between them, and the pair don’t speak again before Genie leaves for her trip with Yunie. On the first day of their break/college tour, Genie is in a really sullen mood, but she isn’t going to let her problems spoil one of the last experiences she is going to have with her best friend and tries to make the best of it. However, seeing how college people live isn’t what she imagined it to be at all and proves to be really overwhelming for her which is made even worse when she remembers that she can’t even indulge in normal teenage things like parties since she burns off the alcohol faster than her body can actually process the effect. In a mood, she tries to cool off only to be confronted by the Dragon General who tells her that his army failed to stop the demonic threat and it is making its way towards Heaven, but Earth lies directly in its path. Guanyin decides to call a conference with the powers of Heaven, but the Jade Emperor has barricaded himself in the Palace leading to others called for an election on the new Emperor of Heaven and many people are nominated. As Genie holds a mandate from the Emperor she votes for Guanyin and while she is initially angry about this, she does understand Genie’s logic, but any heartfelt moment is gate crashed by a demon appearing.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, I am getting a bit of whiplash with this book as it initially set up Iron Will to be far more serious than Epic Crush which I wasn’t really onboard for and it is maintaining this while recycling the format from the first book making them seem really similar so I am hoping for something fresh and different to happen in the second half to really set the two novels apart. As we closer to the halfway mark things are starting to pick up slowly as the four candidates for the new Emperor of Heaven are heading through the rift to see if they can find the demon that defeated the Dragon General but honestly I am bored and I think I am going to DNF this book for now. I may return to it in the future and give it another go but honestly, I am finding myself more and more dissatisfied with YA books whether that is due to my age or my reading preferences changing I don’t know. I would still highly recommend the first book which I read in a single sitting because it was so gripping but the pacing has changed a lot in the second book and I am not gelling with it and the characters that I loved so much in the first book are quite different in this instalment.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo
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