We were really excited after reading the first book in The Infernal Guard Triolgy and wanted to know more right after we finished. We are lucky enough to be able to read and review the second book for you as well! If you haven’t read our review about Emergence yet, you can find that here. If you want to know more about the second book, Descent, keep on reading.

Descent is the second book in The Infernal Guard trilogy. Descent rejoins our heroes eight months after the events of Emergence. Asha and her fellow trainees gather at Central Headquarters, located in North America’s western desert, to celebrate their graduation and receive their postings as full-fledged Infernal Guard members. But the time for celebrations are cut short when Asha confirms her long-held suspicion: The Prophecy, which foretold the birth of a Seer with the power to bring lasting peace to our realm, never meant her. She is not The One The Guard have been waiting for so many years. While hunting Underworlders in Las Vegas, Asha and her team come across a homeless civilian named Jax. Asha immediately realizes the mysterious girl is critical to their survival, and insists Jax accompany them despite her team’s protests and the civilian’s terror. Now, as the forces of darkness unite to capture their foretold Savior, Asha must lead a rescue team of her beloved friends into the Underworld on the mission of their lives. Because if they fail, hope dies with them.

“Saved from vampires only to be killed by teenaged ninjas with swords.”

Cover

Candyce: Another gorgeous cover. I love the colors and the fact that most of the face is still hidden. Yet we can see the moon in the reflection of the eye of her mask and mountains in the background. After reading this book I have to say the cover fits this book well!

Isabelle: To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of the cover. I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up based solely on the cover. I really think a cover change could help this series gain more attention. I don’t really like the face or the mask on the cover, however I do like the details that you can find on it!

 

“I actually thought Steampunk Dean Winchester was about to kiss you back there.”

Plot:

Candyce: I loved the last book, but I have to say that I thought the plot in Descent was just a tad bit stronger than in Emergence. We had a few clichés in the first one and none at all in the second book. While the first book is focused on romance, the second one handles it differently. I think that the author was very brave in her choices when it comes to Lexi and Nidhan. I can’t say too much without giving away spoilers, but this will be an interesting development to keep an eye on in the third book. This book starts 8 months later and while I kind of hoped to read more about the rest of their training, it started out surprisingly well. We meet some new characters and I love that the different perspectives are given to all of the characters. I felt this made me understand the story more and the fact that you have two storylines at once kept this really interesting.

“I’m starting to sound like a damn country song. He took my jacket, my rings, my turban, and my weapons. He shot my dog and tied me up and… and what the hell rhymes with weapons? Step-ins?”

Isabelle: I absolutely agree with Candyce on this one. This book had a completely different vibe than the first book and I loved it! I think this second book was super unique and didn’t feel like something I’ve read before at all. There were no cliches, like Candyce said. When going into the story I was a bit confused for a second about what was going on but almost immediately after I was super into it and just kept on reading and reading. I finished this one super quick once again. The pace was really good and the story was super intruiging and thrilling. I liked all the different perspectives, this gave me a more wholesome view of the story, especially with the two storylines going on simultaniously. Which was another thing I enjoyed, a ton of action and our beloved characters showing how bad ass they are! I thought the Lexi/Nidhan story line was really risky in this book and I for one really enjoyed it. This definitely made me feel things and I loved how it was all handled, not at all what you’d expect. I’m excited and also really scared to see where this is going in the last book.

 

Worldbuilding

Candyce: Once again we dive into an amazing world. Not only are we in the US, but also in Brasil and we see some of the Underworlds that are talked about during the first book. We also get a little glimpse of an Upperworld. Once again the descriptions of these places made me feel like I was there. I can’t say I would want to visit all of the places, haha, but it’s an amazing world. I love the fact that she also takes the different languages in the worlds and that the characters don’t speak all of them and have to improvise at times. This made it feel rather realistic. The Headquarters in Las Vegas seems  like a place I would want to stay!

“Kelakha. Highest qualified Johda warrior in written history, and civilian babysitter.”

Isabelle: The world building in this series is top notch. I’m sad we didn’t get to see more of India but I loved what we saw of Brasil! And mostly I really enjoyed the Underworld we got to see. I could all see it in my head, like a movie played before my eyes and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an actual place and SGD Singh is an Infernal Guard herself who saw all of this with her own eyes before writing it down for us 😉

 

Characters

Candyce: The characters we grew to love are all in this book as well as some amazing new ones. We meet Jax in this book and she hasn’t had an easy life. She’s not sure she should trust this whole world and while experiencing some pretty scary things she is brave and helps them out quite a lot. Jax can be serious and funny and she tries to learn how to trust, but I could tell this will still be a journey. I love the bond that she had with Kelakha. Asha is still very interesting as well. She takes on her role as Commander and doesn’t stand down from what she sees and thinks. This creates some interesting situations. I think my favorite character that we met in this book is Sid. He is a vampire they meet in the Underworld they are at who was turned in the late 70s. Sid is hilarious and a lot different than they expect him to be. Nidhan and Lexi are still a lot of fun as well! I love the teasing and fighting.

“I think he’s telling us a Vampire tried to kill him because he shagged his shagadelic girlfriend.”

Isabelle: Oh that quote reminds me of Sid again, he was HILARIOUS!! I loved the parts he was in so much haha. Jax is the ‘mainest’ new character in this book (does that make sense? Because it does to me haha) and I really liked her. She’s a civilian and not like the ones you see in most YA books. I adored her and Kelakha! It was really nice getting to know him better as well and that made me appreciate the different POV’s in this book even more. Jax and Sid weren’t the only new characters in this book, and I enjoyed the other ones as well. Although we didn’t get that much time with them, they’re all pretty sassy and entertained me for sure. Lexi and Nidhan were amazing in this book, same with Asha. I did miss some of the characters from the first book and it was bittersweet seeing them mentioned in this installment. But I did appreciate that our characters didn’t just forget the fallen friends and were still dealing with that. Special shout out to Zaiden, can’t wait to learn more about him and his friends! So much interesting stuff going on there 😉

 

Once again we loved this book and have become major fangirls. These books need way more attention than they have gotten so far, because they really deserve it! 5 out of 5 stars for sure! Keep and eye on the blog, we got a review copy from the author for the third and last book as well so you can expect a review in the very near future! Isabelle may or may not have started that one already, and with started I mean she already read 1/3 of the book haha.