Flight of the Fallen by Hana Lee

TL;DR: More worldbuilding and an action packed story.
Source: Saga Press! Thank you so much to the publisher!

Plot: Our trio from book one reunite to find their way to the First City, and try to figure out their relationship.
Characters: I enjoy the characters in this, but I wish we had more from the prince and princess.
Setting: A super fascinating dystopian setting, with dinosaurs!
Science-fiction: This leans really hard into the dystopic SF, with a world on the brink of extinction and the attempts to save it.

Summary:

Jin-Lu should be happy. Princess Yi-Nereen of Kerina Rut and Prince Kadrin of Kerina Sol have reunited after twelve long years, having survived a near-apocalypse. They are safe and in love—thanks to Jin—and they want her to join them for their upcoming nuptials in Kerina Sol.

But their happy ending came at the cost of Jin’s.

Jin lost everything in the fallout of saving the world. Now she’s Talentless, scrabbling to eke out a living in the lowest echelons of society. All she wants is to be left alone with her shameful secret, but the storms that sweep the wastes have other plans.

When refugees from a fallen city flood into Kerina Sol, the delicate balance between Talented and Talentless shatters. With tensions rising and civil war looming, Yi-Nereen, Kadrin, and Jin must join forces again to save their own people and the refugees.

Now their salvation lies beyond the wastes, in the mythical home of the the First City.

Thoughts:

Book one in this duology had a slow start and book two definitely followed in those footsteps. After the events of book one Jin has little to no talent and she’s trying to live under the radar. The Princess and Prince are engaged and everything looks fine. Then refugees start flooding in and it turns out it’s not fine.

After around the 40-45% the action starts and doesn’t stop. Our characters are going and going hard to find the First City. From here we get a lot of the worldbuilding and lore to help fill in any holes we had from book one. We get more dinos, more battles, and just a bit more romance. I loved the last half of this, and the way this ended was great.

If you want something Mad Max in feel with a queer element as well, this duology is a great pickup for that. And of course, bonus points for dinosaurs.