Review: The Chasm by S. Usher Evans

The Madion War Trilogy #2

Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Publication Date: July 12th, 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: eARC from Author

Pages: 296

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Summary (from Goodreads):

They survived The Island, but can they cross The Chasm?

Four months after Prince Galian was discovered alive on a remote island, he's adjusting slowly to life at the hospital under the Kylaen media's glare. His promises to Theo remain unfulfilled as fear of his father keeps him from taking concrete action. And the more he learns about the machinations in Kylae, the less sure he is that it's possible to make a difference.
 
Across the great Madion Sea, Major Theo Kallistrate struggles to navigate the tricky political waters of Rave's presidential staff. To make positive change for her people, she must remain relevant and interesting to the Raven media and to the president. When he asks her to deliver a speech on her supposed two-month imprisonment at Mael, she's not sure she can stomach the lies.
 
The Chasm is S. Usher Evans' breathtaking, fast-paced follow-up to The Island, which readers say is "not to be missed."

Four months after being rescued from the Island they were stranded on, Theo and Galian find themselves dealing with the politics of their respective countries. Both of them wanting to do more for each other and for their countries than they think they are able to do.

You get to see a different side to Theo in this book. In The Island, Theo is really hard, kind of angry, and blindly patriotic to Rave. In The Chasm, you get to see a more vulnerable side to her. She's seeing the uglier sides of Rave and realizing that things aren't necessarily what she thought they were when she was a conscripted pilot. She wants to be doing something to help the Raven people and to end the war, but as Rave's new media darling, she pretty much just stands behind President Bayard during his speeches, being the face of the horrors of Mael.

Galian is in the same boat as Theo. In the four months since he and Theo parted ways, he hasn't made any headway on any of the promises he made to her. He isn't any closer to shutting down Mael and he isn't certain what he can do about it. After getting a burst of inspiration, you get to see his bravery in regards to that. Besides seeing his bravery shine through, he is the same sweet, kind, and caring princeling as he was in the first book.

The beginning of this book is really slow with both of them dealing with politics and life. But then Theo goes to a summit with the nations of Herin and Jervan and Galian finds a way to smuggle himself there against the king's orders that no Kylaen will attend the summit as long as Rave is invited. Things really pick up from there, becoming a lot more action packed and what not. And I didn't want to put it down after that!

Obviously with Theo and Galian being separated in the beginning of this book, the romance takes a little bit to pick up. But when it does... Hoo boy. It does not disappoint. I love their relationship so much. I love how trusting they are. How Theo can see all the stuff in the papers and on the news about him maybe hanging out with girls and just be so understanding and still trust that he loves her. Like, I don't know if I could be like that! They work so good together and I want moar.

Like The Island, this book is told in both Galian's and Theo's points of view. I still found it easy to distinguish who was talking when, which I greatly appreciated.

I liked that we got to see more of the Madion nations. You get to see a lot more of Rave and some of Jervan and learn a bit about Herin. Jervan sounds like it would probably be the nicest place to be in this book.

Generally, when I'm reading a sequel book, I find myself really disliking the newly introduced characters or characters that become more important than in the previous book. Just because I find myself not caring about them and just wanting to know things about my favorite original characters. But that was not the case in this book! I loved learning about the secondary characters in this book. Rhys, the Queen, Kader, Martin. I loved them all and knowing what they were up to and what they cared bout.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit! It gave me goosebumps and made me a bit teary at a couple points! It's just as good as The Island despite the slower start. I am READY for The Union! I'm excited to see how the events in this end of this book will affect the war and I'm also needing Theo and Galian to have a very happy happily ever after.