"The clan is my blood and the Pillar is its master," she whispered. "I have a lot of regrets in life, but those oaths aren't one of them."

***CW's: Violence, death, abortion, mentions of sexual assault, racism, ableism, torture, homophobia, gun violence and war***

Possible mild spoilers for Jade City as well

I've said it on TikTok, Instagram and just about everywhere else. I did not finish this book, it finished me. I am not surprised however considering the first book, Jade City, made it to my favourite books of 2021. So why not continue my track record of letting this series break my heart?

On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for control of the capital city and the supply of magical jade that endows trained Green Bone warriors with supernatural powers they alone have possessed for hundreds of years.

Beyond Kekon's borders, war is brewing. Powerful foreign governments and mercenary criminal kingpins alike turn their eyes on the island nation. Jade, Kekon's most prized resource, could make them rich - or give them the edge they'd need to topple their rivals.

Faced with threats on all sides, the Kaul family is forced to form new and dangerous alliances, confront enemies in the darkest streets and the tallest office towers, and put honor aside in order to do whatever it takes to ensure their own survival - and that of all the Green Bones of Kekon.

So safe to say this is every bit as brilliant as the first book. I honestly can't comprehend what might be coming in the third book. This is that excellent mix of a book that bridges the start of what is going to be an excellent trilogy, that also manages to be a totally different book and is both character and plot focused.

We start off with an opening similar to the last book, a theft. A theft of jade specifically. Now I don't support the glorification of murder, but I do support the notion of book characters that should be dead getting on with dying already. A Green Bone is buried with their jade, and with the death of a notable Green Bone warrior just passing, two thieves see an opportunity. This book follows on roughly a year from the climactic end of the first, seeing the Kaul family adjusting to life and carrying the clan forward. Something that I didn't realise until nearly the very end of Jade War was this book takes place over the course of 4 years. And it you can certainly feel the weight of that.

This is very different from the kind of book before it as well in that this focuses a lot more on the clan politics. No Peak and the Mountain have signed an agreement at this point to confirm to the public that there will be peace between their clans, under the conditions they both lay down. This really is only for the public since clan war never stops its machinations behind closed doors or within the Weather mans office. But it's also a point that the clans need the public as well to be in their favour.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was the levels to which the clans were playing out this longer game. Jade City had a lot of ground to lay down that showed how clans would settle their disputes as warriors or how bloody that can be. Green Bones are bound by aisho, but they have more shrewd manoeuvres as well. The use of public support through the media, leaking personal information to news outlets and putting on a front of nationalism among a few. It's so hard to make this interesting and even more difficult to layer it in a way that Fonda Lee does where you're so caught up in the 3D chess of the more subtle stuff that you actually get completely taken aback when a huge event happens. Like its been so minute that when something happened on a larger scale, I actually had to go back and reread it to make sure I had read it right.

This is an even better piece of character work as well. Hilo is that great balance of the man in charge who has to make decisions and the street warrior that is the Horn. He does right by his people but he will do more by his family. He will go to lengths that are absolutely not redeemable by any moral standards and not once does the book cease to remind you of who he is. His growth as a person is huge though but my real shining star in this book was Shae. Shae is already my favourite female character but she really came into her own at the end of Jade City so made sense that she got a lot more here. There is a real struggle within her but she also is starting to step out from her brothers and be a true Green Bone herself.

Something in particular I wanted to touch on was the really interesting dynamic between Ayt Mada and Shae. Wen, a Hilo's wife and her own level of intelligent, is equally interesting but these two are just always so fascinating when they meet! Ayt Mada is the Pillar of the Mountain clan but she literally killed to be there. Shae went away from No Peak, came back and never faced much from her family, her grandfather especially. They're both extremely formidable and the battle of wits with them is far more complex than that between her and Hilo. There is a scene in this book that shows all this perfectly but without detailing it, there's just so much nuance to them. Which really shows in Fonda Lee's writing of these characters, there is care and levelling to them.

Like my review of Jade City, I will stop here to save myself rambling too far. But this is honestly such a different book to that but it covers a huge amount of time, detail and happenings that it blew me away just as much. Jade Legacy is a book I'm dreading but I can't wait to see how Fonda Lee breaks my heart even more. Thanks for checking in guys! Happy reading!