TLC Book Tours: The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Title: The Invasion of the Tearling
Author: Erika Johansen 
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publish Date: June 9, 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins 

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "With each passing day, Kelsea Glynn is growing into her new responsibilities as Queen of the Tearling. By stopping the shipments of slaves to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, she crossed the Red Queen, a brutal ruler whose power derives from dark magic, who is sending her fearsome army into the Tearling to take what is hers. And nothing can stop the invasion.

But as the Mort army draws ever closer, Kelsea develops a mysterious connection to a time before the Crossing, and she finds herself relying on a strange and possibly dangerous ally: a woman named Lily, fighting for her life in a world where being female can feel like a crime. The fate of the Tearling —and that of Kelsea’s own soul—may rest with Lily and her story, but Kelsea may not have enough time to find out."

My Two Cents:

"The Invasion of the Tearling" is the second book in the "The Queen of the Tearling" trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book and very excited to get to this book. In this book, Kelsea is coming to terms with being queen. She is learning what she can and cannot do. She also is starting to learn how she must rule. She is also having very vivid dreams about a woman named Lily who lived back before the Crossing, an event that we find out a lot more about in this book.

Okay, so a lot of the stuff that I wanted to know in the first book started to come together. This twist was really fantastic but I really don't want to give anything away so pardon me for being vague. We find out that the situation in Kelsea's world was caused by some sort of event and that her world is far in the future from our world. The way that the author starts bringing Kelsea and Lily's world together is fascinating. We then are able to begin to understand why Kelsea's world is so violent and why things are the way that they are. I love dystopian fiction but I always want to understand why things are the way that they are and this book does such a good job of this!

This book is both entertaining but definitely made me think as well. We see the juxtaposition of how women in Kelsea's world are treated and women in Lily's world are treated. It is such an interesting comparison. Lily's world seems much more familiar to current day readers than Kelsea's will, which makes Lily's world a little more frightening. It also grounded Kelsea's world in a bit more reality for me, which I really appreciated.

I have been craving dystopian fiction in light of all that is going on in our world. This second book has thrilled me and I am anxious to see where the third book goes. I'm already dreading reading the third book because this is only a trilogy!

Follow the rest of the tour here!