BOOK REVIEW | 'Glass Sword' by Victoria Aveyard (****)

Hello readers, and happy Monday! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to Easter this week <3

Today I've got a book review for you- of the amazing Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard- the second book in the Red Queen series! Now, I am the first person to admit that I am not the hugest fantasy fan (I have admitted it many times on this blog and my YouTube channel), however I will forever and always say that Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series is my exception. The first two books are beautifully written, exhilarating, atmospheric and just simply fantastic. If you haven't read them already, I highly encourage you to do so- they are the kind of books you can get lost in, fangirl over, and shout from the rooftops about.

If you haven’t read Red Queen or don’t want any clues about Glass Sword, you probably don’t want to read this review- I haven’t written any blatant spoilers, but you may be able to guess some things if you have read Red Queen! So just be warned :)

Glass Sword is the second book in Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series- a story following ‘Lightning Girl’ Mare Barrow’s journey as she unites with her own kind (newbloods) and the Reds, the group who has been oppressed since the beginning of time, to fight against the Silver King and the tyrannical state that has been set up to control them. 

I was kindly sent the second book in the series, Glass Sword, for review by Orion Publishing, so I hurriedly bought the first book, Red Queen, on my Kindle to try out first. Safe to say, I was not disappointed in the least. Today I'm going to be reviewing Glass Sword (which I was sent in exchange for an honest review!) Read the blurb below...

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. 

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. 

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. 

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?


The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

One of my favourite things about Glass Sword was that I felt the characters were developed so much more and I learned a lot more about them. In Red Queen it took me a good while to learn to like Mare Barrow and be able to empathise with her character. I found her slightly annoying and unrealistic in the way she just adjusted to her new life and the new people in it. I felt like she had little to no loyalty to her family and was slightly self-centred.

However, I felt like this side to Mare's character was developed so much more in Glass Sword. Mare hadn't undergone a massive transformation from book one to book two, which made her a whole lot more realistic, and also made her character development throughout the book a lot more interesting. Mare has to deal with the two worlds’ she is now part of clashing together and her feelings of betrayal and forbidden love still left over from the ending of Red Queen. Particularly in the last few chapters of Glass Sword, I really got a sense of Mare's conflicted feelings towards her supposed loyalties and her powerful influence. Although this is a fantasy novel, Aveyard wrote Mare as a realistic seventeen-year-old, which surely makes Glass Sword not only an exciting fantasy novel, but also an important YA one too.

As for the plot development, I thought this book went by a lot quicker than Red Queen. Although extensive world-building is inevitable in the first book of any fantasy series, it can get a little tiring when you just want a bit more action, however in Glass Sword Aveyard did not skimp on the action at all. I found almost every single chapter thrilling in one way or another, and the way the story developed was flawless. Also, no reader could hope for a better ending- although it did kill me slightly (when is the next book coming out- please?)

There were so many parts of the book I wanted to highlight and sticky-note and keep forever, and here are a couple of my favourites below:

‘I am a weapon made of flesh, a sword covered in skin. I was born to kill a king, to end a reign of terror before it can truly begin. Fire and lightning raised Maven up, and fire and lightning will bring him down.’- page 250

‘They were nothing like us, unable to feel pain or remorse or kindness. But people like Cal, Julian, and even Lucas have shown me how wrong I was. They are just as human, just as full of fear and hope. They are not without their sins, but neither are we. Neither am I.’- page 256

If those quotes don’t tempt you to read Glass Sword, I honestly don’t know what will! Even if you don’t normally like fantasy novels, or don’t normally read fantasy novels, pick up Red Queen and Glass Sword- I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Check out Victoria Aveyard here: http://victoriaaveyard.com

Buy Red Queen here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Queen-Victoria-Aveyard/dp/1409150720

Buy Glass Sword here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Sword-Victoria-Aveyard/dp/1409159353/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/277-2007412-7800460?ie=UTF8&refRID=07GG39331281F4N73DJ9



Until next time :)