The Flame Never Dies (The Stars Never Rise #2) by Rachel Vincent

Overall Rating: 3 stars

Date Finished: October 22, 2106

This book pretty much picks up where the other one left off. Nina and the other exorcists are in the Badlands and are trying to survive without resources. And on tops of that demons are being sent from the demon run city of Pandemonia to track down Finn.

Now, on of my biggest complaints about this book is that there is a lot of things that are left unexplained. 

For example, in the beginning of the book they decide to raid a supplies truck. It is two or three supply trucks full of items and a very small contingent of guards. Once they've finished tying up the guards Nina notices that something just doesn't seem right about all of this. She asks the guards trying to figure out what's going on but once they realize that one of the guards is actually a demon they get distracted and the whole weirdness of the situation is never resolved. Why would the Church make a mistake like that? Chances are they weren't making a mistake but actually setting them up for something. But what? Later when they mention the virus I think, now I get it. They put the virus in the food and they wanted them to hijack it. But then the explanation given is that Mellie was injected with it while in the city. So then that the leaves the question of this raid. And if it wasn't significant, then why make it suspicious. Just have them raid it and move it. Don't make a big deal about at the moment only to have it mean nothing later on. 

And then we have the virus. The boy starts showing signs within 2 or 3 days, and yet a demon is able to possess Mellie for almost a week without very many symptoms. And then all of of the sudden it escalates all within a matter of hours. And when they get to Pandemonium all of the demons start showing symptoms within hours. Mellie was the original carrier so if anything her demon should have felt the affects sooner. It was all just a bit contradictory.

And then we have the baby. The world building previously explained says that the wellspring of souls is empty and a baby dies unless someone dies at the same time to give them their souls. Yet, the nomads believe that my killing demons they free the soul of the righteous which helps refill the wellspring. So, why do all babies die without a volunteer soul in the cities and yet some babies survive in the Badlands. And how do you explain how the baby survived. They stop Nina from sacrificing herself to save him and yet he somehow miraculously gets a soul. Does that have something to do with the illness, does it return Melanie's soul to the wellspring instead of the demon feeding off her or is there something else? Is the wellspring really empty? Does it have something to do with the people taken captive closer to Pandemonium. Did some of those deaths leave a soul in the wellspring? You can't describe the world in absolutes and then break the rules when its convenient without explaining it! Drives me crazy.

And there is the whole battle for Pandemonium. Nina gives herself up expecting to sacrifice herself in order to destroy all the demons. And while there was some action and some losses on both sides, in the end I was left feeling like it was too easy. They infiltrate the city fairly easily, the showdown with the big bad demon everyone is scared of lasts two minutes, and they basically topple a demon fortress with squirt bottles. I don't know, it was all a bit disappointing. Especially with that big bad demon being Finn and Grayson's dad, I expected something more from the show down. I don't know, a conversation, him trying to convince them to stay, or at least seeing it from Finn's perspective instead of Nina just seeing from the corner of the eye that Finn had killed his dad. Talk about anticlimactic!

Anyway, while there was some good parts to the book and it wasn't bad overall, there is still a lot that left me frustrated and wishing for something more.