Better than the first book in my opinion, more frustrating plot twists that made me angry for all the main characters' roadblocks, and drew me in even more to the story and their fates. The storyline is very good in this second book, lots of action, best intentions thwarted at every turn, no matter how hard they try to do things the right way and play along with all the games and manipulation.Kalinda struggles with not wanting to be the Kindred, the first-ranked rani (queen) of the empire, and her duty to protect her people and empire. She wants to be free and live in peace with Deven, her guard she fell in love with. She thinks that if she can find the prince and restore him to his throne, she can have that freedom. But she finds out it won't be that easy. She has to fight in another tournament against the princesses of the other empires for the right to be the prince's first wife and Kindred. She doesn't want her throne, but she also won't let it go to someone else who doesn't care about the fate of her people. So she eventually fights to keep her throne and her rank as Kindred. She struggles to keep her Burner identity a secret from her people to keep their favor as their champion, but they were raised to hate all bhutas, and she has to fight against the princesses who are also bhutas. She has no choice but to reveal her powers in order to survive against them. Comoared to the others, she is a nobice with her newfound abilities, so she'll need every advantage she can get.Kalinda doesn't want to marry the prince, but she comes to trust and respect him and wants to help him save their people. She knows they can do that together, so she struggles between her duty to her people and her own desires for love and happiness with Deven. He promises she will be free at the end of this, no matter what the outcome, but he hopes she will want to stay by his side as his Kindred. He sees her strength of beliefs and her love for their people, and he believes she is the key to saving their empire and fixing it after his tyrannical father twisted everything.Kalinda starts to come into her own in this book. She learns a lot about her own abilities and how strong she can be, especially when protecting the people she loves. She has been training more with fire and with weapons and is a more confident and skilled fighter now, with daggers and with fire. She is still timid and almost afraid of her Burner abilities because they are so new and she is still learning control while keeping them a secret. But as she gets to know the nature of fire and her origins, she trusts her natural instincts and becomes more powerful. It's pretty impressive how quickly she progresses with her powers with so little training and mostly fueled by instinct and forced by circumstances.They're now facing an even greater threat at the close of this book, but I'm not sure how they'll face it, or what will happen next. So I'm starting the third book right now...