The God-Touched Man by Melissa McShaneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read the first in this series some years ago, and this year finally got round to reading the sequel (after a re-read of the first book, which was just as good as I remembered). I didn't enjoy it quite as much as The Smoke-Scented Girl , but that's a high bar to clear, and this is still a fine book. It's just that Smoke-Scented Girl gripped and compelled me throughout with a combination of personal and wider stakes that were expertly intertwined, flawless pacing, and a hero and heroine I had no issues cheering on from the start, and this book didn't quite achieve any of that to the same degree.
Still, there are personal stakes and world-saving stakes, and the hero and heroine are both admirable, and there's plenty going on. I did feel that the resolution of the romance plot felt a bit sudden and was placed more like an epilogue than a climax. Resolutions, in fact, tended to come a bit suddenly overall, after long periods of lower tension, rather than having the kind of sustained tension and well-prepared shifts of the earlier book. And the protagonist does carry the idiot ball at one point, in order for his situation to get worse because he hasn't spotted something he really should have. (view spoiler)
Overall, though, it's a fine piece of writing, with very few editing issues and set in a well-realized world. The characters are appealing, the action well described, the stakes compelling, and I recommend it.
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