The Fallen Prince by Amalie Howard is the second book in a YA sci-fi series The Riven Chronicles. Riven left her world and Caden behind to return to out in order hunt down her traitorous father, Danton, and bring him to justice. After a year, she is brought back to Neospes to help fend off a massive army of Reptiles that are systematically attacking the city. 
They are under the control of Cale, the fallen prince. Riven is tasked with finding a way to defeat the army, secure the aide of Avaria (a newly discovered city), and figure out what Danton is up too, all while there is another traitor in their mist working for the Reptiles. Will she be able to pull it all off?
I had a little be harder time getting through this book than I did the first one. There is a lot going on all at once, and there are some very choppy parts in the narrative. The whole Sebba/Bass explanation was very confusing at first. They kept mentioning clones, so it was hard to tell if they were talking about Sebba or Cale. There was also a part where Riven talks of her mother being there for both her and Cale, which didn’t fit with the previous narrative about their history. I was under the impression in the first book that Riven was very young when her mother left, and it didn’t seem that her mother was around that much to have any sort of close relationship with Cale. Speaking of Cale, I would have liked some more details about how he was turned into a Reptile, aside from being told that he needed some new organs.
The characterizations for this story were better, but there were still a few issues. Riven was much improved, and her conflicting emotions about herself and Caden came out great. She definitely seemed a stronger character this time around, aside from missing the whole Bass thing when it was smacking her in the face the entire time. Danton was built up as a heartless mad scientist in the first book, and was still the same through most of this one. However, there was a big 360 right at the end and suddenly he was just some sort of misunderstood anti-hero. It did not fit at all.
I also expected that there would be some sort of development for Cale, who was pretty one-dimensional in the first book. Instead, all we really learned was that he had a fear of the dark. It was a really missed opportunity. Aenoh was also another missed opportunity as well. He could have easily been used in with the main villains, but he was wasted in the background. Bass was interesting, but you could see it coming a mile away that he was a villain of some sort. I was a little surprised at his reveal, but again, it was already heavily hinted at.
Overall, it wasn’t bad. It mostly had some pacing issues & info overloads that made it hard to follow in some places. The book is available on both Amazon and Goodreads. You can keep up with Mrs. Howard by visiting her website, and you can also check out her other novels there as well.
I received this item for free for a review. All opinions are 100% my own.
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