"Upon the Flight of the Queen" by Howard Andrew Jones

Things have grown quite desperate for everyone. The Naor are attacking and winning the war, claiming the lands won for themselves, but destroying as much as they claim and control. When the Naor take over a town, the people there are turned into slaves and used as blood sacrifices. The town of Alantris’ defences have been breached and it has become clear that the town will not survive, but can the Altenarai who have been defending the town manage to find a way to rescue and save more than a few of the people living within the town? And what about the other towns that are also under attack by the Naor? How can the country as a whole defend against Naor dragons that can destroy whole sections of walls with no more than a roar?

There are a number of strange things happening in the background of this story that involve the hearthstones. What exactly are they, and are they truly helpful or is there a danger to using them? And why is the queen willing to throw away and betray ancient alliances and promises to collect as many of them as she can? What is she hoping to do with all of the hearthstones that she has been collecting? And why is it apparently more important to the queen than the safety of her own people seems to be?

This is an exciting book with a lot of plot twists and turns. There is a great deal going on in this story and it kept me entertained and wanting to see what will happen next. It is an intricate story with a plot that still contains secrets to be discovered by the reader. I am definitely looking forward to book 3 in this series to find out the answers to some of the questions I discovered in this book. This book focuses a great deal on the resistance efforts of the people as well as the continued defense and strength offered by the Altenarai who defend the people.

The version I read was an uncorrected copy, which did contain a number of typos. I expect that a majority of those typos will be corrected before the official release date. But even if they are not, the story is still excellent and very enjoyable. I am looking forward to book 3 in the series to find out about how it will come to a conclusion.