Week 52 Review: Heavenly Tyrant

From Goodreads:

After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of power in Huaxia. But she has also learned that her world is not as it seems, and revelations about an enemy more daunting than Zetian imagined forces her to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite having vastly different ideas about how they must deconstruct the corrupt and misogynist system that plagues their country, Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies and perform their roles to perfection in order to take down their common enemy, who seeks to control them as puppets while dangling one of Zetian's loved ones as a hostage.

With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?

My Review:
This was an amazing read! I loved Iron Widow, it was a top read of 2022 when I first read it, so I knew I would really enjoy reading this one. I knew that it was going to be different, because the first book has her tearing down a bad system, but in this book, she had to rebuild, which was its own bunch of complications.

I've watched Xiran Jay Zhao's social media videos, so I had an idea of what this book was going to look like. What I wasn't expecting was for Qin Zheng to take the place of power, and that she would be subservient to him. Like, he's just woken up in this century, but because he was emperor in his time, and he's a guy, that's how things worked out. Which shackled them together, for good and bad.

Zetian's life is drastically changed, that she's taken the position of Empress, but that means she has to have this bond with Qin Zheng, not great. Like, he has surgeries done on her body while she's unconscious and couldn't consent. Given that part was molding her feet to ones that she can use with much less pain, I think she would've chosen to have them done, but she didn't have the chance to consent. Which was a running theme in the way that she was treated.

There were 2 main things going on in this book-rebuilding the government, and dealing with the "gods." The complex politics of government, the plotting of all these characters, it was a lot going on. It was hard to know who to trust, especially with the program of having people inform on others, or share in the punishment. It was pretty tricky, and if Quin Zheng wasn't an asshole to Zetian, I would've admired him, because most of his non-gender politics, I agreed with, even if I didn't with all his methods. 

One thing that was pretty topical, was the face off of the people, vs. corporations and the leaders of this corporation. Given what's happened in the US recently, this was a pretty great discussion of what people can do to rebel, to fight for better treatment. 

That ending though? That was another epic ending! Where we left these characters, and all the threats after them, I'm so excited for book 3! I need to know what's going to happen next, how they're going to deal with these threats! 

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait for book 3! 

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao
Series: Iron Widow #2
Read: December 25th, 2024
Source: Bought 
Reason Why: Love their writing and this series, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2024 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Tundra Books 
Published: December 24th 2024

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars