Review: The Inquisition

The Inquisition
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

On trial for a crime he did not commit, Fletcher must face the Inquisition who will decide his future - the process is gruelling, lead by those who will do anything to see him suffer and haunted by ghosts from the past with clues to Fletcher's tragic origins. 

But Fletcher has little time to dwell on these new revelations when the king announces a deadly challenge to the graduating students at Vocans. One that involves entering Orc territory to complete a risky mission. With loyal demons by their sides, commoners and nobles, dwarves and elves must overcome barriers of class and race and work together to triumph. The reward: a fortune in gold, the safety of an empire and PEACE.

With the entire empire watching, Fletcher has much to prove, but there are those out to get him and it soon becomes clear that there's a traitor in their midst, trying to thwart the mission and create unrest within the Empire. 

With everything stacked against him, Fletcher must use everything in his power to fight his way to victory.

So, if you follow me on Twitter you probably saw me live tweeting as I read this, and completely losing my mind! The first book was a stand out book for me last year, I stumbled on it, won a proof of  it and just had to review it because it was so awesome! It was just so imaginative and fun and just plain original! You can get lost in these books easily, and as soon as I started to read The Inquisition, I was glued to the page, and thrown back in to the world like I'd never been away! 

We're one year on from the events of the last book, and Fletcher's been doing some time in a cell awaiting trial. Didirc the douchebag is back, joy of joys...I mean seriously...can we kill him yet? Again that is. I seriously cannot believe he hasn't got his comeuppance yet and I was completely blind sided by him and his new turn of fortune. Despite the time jump, the book continues the story smoothly, and you're immediately back in the world with the characters and everything that's going on. Much like the first book, a hell of a lot happens in this book, we have the trial...and then a second trial and then we have Fletcher and our favourite characters heading in to the Jungle and Orc territory to carry out a huge mission. I loved every single page. Except the last two pages, YOU CAN'T JUST END IT THERE?! 

The cliffhanger is real you guys, it's so very real and much like the first book there was actual shouting at this book! 

I enjoyed the fact that this book continued to be easy to read...but maintaining its complexity. All the issues from the first book with the different races, dwarves and elves and humans, are still present in this book and it's been ramped up. The dwarves are still fighting for equality but there's a problem with traitors within the group making things a hell of a lot worse. You have everyone trying to get along but a select group of people not wanting everyone to team up and work together, not wanting cooperation and determined to destroy it all. There's a lot of political manoeuvring in this book and manipulation. We start to understand King Harold and his position a bit more, what he can and can't do and what he's dealing with, we have the Triumvirate aka Didric, the Forsyth's and the Favershams, who are obviously out for revenge on Fletcher and want everything to go their way regarding their business. So there's a lot of complex politics in this book, as well as even more history to the characters and the world of the book. I LOVE reading about the history to the world and the species of the books, not going to lie!

Speaking of the world of the book, it's just as vivid as before, cinematic and you can easily picture each and every scene, and the characters in them, all with just a few words. When I talked about The Novice, I mentioned wanting to see more of the clearly extensive world and my wish was granted in this book! We're right there with the characters, completely oblivious to real life, as we journey to the Great Forest and get to hang out with the elves and then spend most of the book in the Jungle in Orc territory! I can't get over how imaginative these books are, and they where insanely that in the first book, but in this book there's so much detail to the Orcs. The author introduces us to them, and we see a different side to them than has been portrayed so far, not everything is as it seems and I loved the idea of having the Orcs being, not just mindless villains, but having their own political struggles, with conscription and so on. 

Matharu gives us so much detail on the Orcs, the different types, the politics, the legends, the history, the games/sports they like to play and so on, and he gives us an opposing force that are multi dimensional, and there's even some intrigue as to the "prophecy". I just love how the author shares his imagination with us, giving us this huge world, filled with a tonne of different species and demons and brings them all to life with originality. He does all this without drowning you in information. 

It's the originality and the imagination in this book that makes it stand out! We get even more magic in this book and even more demons, including one that I totally need in my life because it reminds me of Pikachu. We get to learn more about the magic of the world and the demons, and I loved getting to see even more types of demon. I love how extensive the demons of the world of the book are, there are so many, and we see a hell of a lot more in this book, each brilliantly brought to life! Don't get me wrong, Ignatious is still my fave, but I really loved Athena as well, and a few of the other new demons! I love how they have their own personalities and how much they care about the Summoners they belong to. Definite Pokemon vibes okay. 

I also got some intense Lord of The Rings vibes when our favourite characters, Fletcher, Othello and Sylva, all teamed up for the mission. Seriously! Fletcher continues to be realistic and easy to relate to and there are a lot of revelations about him this time round, including the big one...who his parents are. DUN DUN DUUUUNNN! I completely loved Sylva and I liked getting to see more of her in this book and I kind of ship her and Fletcher, I can't lie you guys! I just love how Sylva is a complete badass. Othello also intrigued me, and I was excited to see what he'd been up to, along with his brother, who we get to see a bit more of! I got so angry on Othello's behalf at one point! I loved how they'd been apart for so long, but they all managed to get back together and work well together in their team! We see more of these characters, get to know them more and yet, are still left wanting more! I love all of the characters, Matharu brings them to life so perfectly and gives them depth, along with the demons and the secondary characters. A load of our other favourite characters are back as well! 

Arcturus (I legit cheered when he made his appearance) and Captain Lovett make appearances, much like I'd hoped for, but we don't get to see all that much of them sadly! I just love how the pair keep an eye on them the entire time! I still completely ship them as well, because I can. Seraph is back, and I'm still hoping to get to know his character more as well! We see a lot of Malik, and glimpses of Rory and Genevieve. Like I said we see more of King Harold, and we see another side of him, the more kind hearted side, shall we say! Our least favourite characters are back as well, to continue to make you hate them, Rook, Didric, Tarquin, Isadora and so on. The whole Fletcher Hate Squad in other words. 

We also get a tonne more new characters, Cress the female dwarf, who I completely loved! She's so awesome, she made me laugh a hell of a lot! I can't wait to see more of her in book three, she has an interesting background, with her brother and so on. We have Jeffrey the asthmatic alchemist and their guide for the book, my brain kept autocorrecting his name to Joffrey...oops. He was interesting, and he proved a source of information on all things Orc, giving us a lot of fascinating information to bring the world to life, or rather this new part of the world! And we have Verity Faversham, who we didn't get to see too much of, but I'm intrigued because I can't decide if she's going to be a good character or a bad character considering what her last name is! There's also a final new character I have to mention, but I can't really say much, but omg. I had SUCH a strong suspicion and then I was right and I can't even. I really can't. I have a feeling I know who betrayed said character as well, but I'm not entirely sure I'm right because there are SO many possibilities! 

There are plot twists all over the place, and plenty of surprises in store as you read. I couldn't put the book down, except for when I really, really had to! I just got lost in the world of the book, shoving away real life and letting my imagination run wild. There's more of everything we loved in the first book, magic, demons, history of the world and so on. We get to see more of it in vivid detail! We also get some burning questions answered about Fletcher, and a horrible cliffhanger to haunt us until the next book because SERIOUSLY!? I cannot wait for the final book in the trilogy, I mean I'll be sad it's over but at the same time, I have to know what happens next and I have to have some new questions answered! I honestly can't rave about these books enough, they are truly magical!