Rogue in the Making

<b> <i>Have you ever wondered...what happens when worlds collide?</i> </b><br /><br />'Rogue in the Making' is the follow up to 'Warlock in Training' and the second book in TJ Nichol's series 'Studies in Demonology' and the first thing I want to say is 'If you haven't read 'Warlock in Training' you probably should. I honestly can't say that you can't read this one without having read the first book but having read it and having read this one...I think I can safely say you'll probably find it a whole lot less confusing if you do. Both the characters and the overall story ARC carry through each book so these are not standalone stories.<br /><br />I absolutely loved the first book in this series as in I devoured it like a demon (tee, hee did you see what I did there?) anyways, I loved it and the second book couldn't come out fast enough and yet, when it did and I was there with my greedy, grubby little hands I jumped in and part way into the story I just came to a screeching halt...like squealing brakes on a rain slick road screeching and honestly I'm not exactly sure why because I kept going back to the story and finally after stopping and reading a couple other books I dove back in and finished it and truthfully I loved it, this one was easily as good as the first book. I think for me it just came down to a case of right book, wrong time because I am so on board for the third and final installment in this series...hell, I was ready for the next book before the final chapter in this one. Now don't tell me that doesn't speak to a good book when it can take me from "I'm not sure I can do this." to "Sweet baby jebus can someone give me more."<br /><br />We're back in the worlds of Angus and Saka. The college is still hoarding magic and creating an imbalance in both worlds. The rebels are still fighting it...or are they? Angus is becoming very unsure as to who the bad guys are and who are the good guys? or are there any? Who should he trust? <br /><br />Saka is faced with acknowledging his feelings for Angus...at least to himself. Things are becoming precarious on demonside and friends are becoming foes. Nothing seems to be what it is and everything is becoming suspect to both Angus and Saka. <br /><br />As Angus goes back and forth between his world and Saka's he gets answer to questions that don't quite add up and more questions arise while amidst all of this he realizes that he's also developing feelings for Terrence a friend from his days at the college. As Angus's feelings for Terrence grow people notice and the relationship becomes his weakness...a tool for those who would control Angus to wield against him. <br /><br />While the relationship growth between Saka and Angus was slow it was also loaded with obstacles not the least of which was human? demon? Need I say more? I've liked the interaction between these two from the first book and while it occasionally felt slow to me there was still lots of interest to keep me reading add in the dynamics of Angus's growing feelings for Terrence and the prospect of his worlds colliding should Terrence and Saka meet, how's it even possible to not be interested? and for those who are wondering...Saka...well, he's got a tail and if you want to know more well then you'll just have to read the books, lol!<br /><br />Ok, back to the books...the plot in this series is hella', hella' good. We're talking about two different worlds here but worlds that are connected and while they are in a way dependent on each other they also require a balance to be maintained but what happens when it's not? Well that's what we're finding out, it's not pretty and the possibilities are frightening because if somebody doesn't find the right solution the only question that will remain to be answered isn't who will survive? it's will anyone survive?<br /><br />Whatever the reason that I struggled with this one I do know it wasn't the book and I am all in for this series...maybe, this one wasn't 5 stars for me, but 4 stars for a book that I had a bit of a struggle says a lot to me and mostly what it says is that I need to read the next book and find out what happens to Saka, Angus, Terrence, Lizzie and Wek. They've already lost some of their band of renegades...friends have died, lives have been sacrificed now what remains to be seen is 'was it worth it? or was it all in vain?' I for one want to know.<br /><br />************************<br /><br />A copy of 'Rogue in the Making' was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn't been sure what to think of the first book in this series, and I'm still not sure after reading the second. As before there is a lot of things that should work for me - a paranormal/fantasy with a suspense plot, a dystopian earth or earth-like planet, magic and demons.<br /><br />But if someone like me who likes her books unfluffy says there is romance missing, believe me the case is serious. But I could do without the romance taking the center stage if the suspense/fantasy plot would have filled rank one in a satisfying manner. It could have worked but just as in the case of book one this story is missing some serious editing for more than the (many) spelling mistakes. The story has some serious length in the middle that had me struggling to keep my interest up. The pacing was off. Unimportant stuff was shown really detailed while then important stuff was just brushed over. The ideas are still good though and this could have been a real winner if it was straightened up a bit.<br /><br />There is one minor thing though that, some readers might enjoy - it looks like the story could end up as a menage of Angus and his two boyfriends - and no, I'm not into that and had I known beforehand not sure if I had still picked it up.

While I’m not going to go into a whole lot of spoilers for <i>this</i> book, I will have to talk about several things that will be spoilers for book one, so if you haven’t read <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/30558033.Warlock_in_Training__Studies_in_Demonology___1_" title="Warlock in Training (Studies in Demonology, #1) by T.J. Nichols" rel="noopener">Warlock in Training</a> yet, and still intend to, I’d advise you give this review a miss. I’m basically going to be spoiling the climax of book one in this review, so if you go further here it might make the reading experience a bit less enjoyable.<br><br>So, now that all that is handled…<br><br><i>Rogue in the Making </i>opens up shortly after the end of book one. Angus’ father is dead–his blood and soul used to rebalance the magic in Demonside–and Angus himself is healing from the knife wound his father inflicted on him when he tried to kill Angus. The ritual performed at the end of the first book has also brought in the rains–for however long it will last–and the demons have agreed to give Angus and the other trainees a year to figure out a way to rebalance the magic without all-out war. But the calm does not last long as Angus soon starts to suspect that the Underground of warlocks who said they wished to bring down the college and their harmful ways are not as completely honest as they portrayed themselves. And it seems that not all demons are content to wait a year to see results. With both sides of the veil teetering on war from without and within, Angus and Saka must scramble to hold together a fragile peace all the while trying to find a way to save Demonside from drying to dust and blowing away in the wind.<br><br>There were parts of this book that I liked more than the <i>Warlock in Training</i>, and some that I liked less.<br><br>On the positive side, I think the author did a good job of making sure you felt the tension in this story from beginning to end. Even when things were good, you knew that it would not last. There was a constant sense of dread and impending doom that I think worked well towards making this a hard book to put down.<br><br>On the flip side of that, the way this book was structured, the movement from scene to scene–and the way it seemed to leave out some rather important, or at the very least <i>impactful</i>, scenes–made the narrative a bit choppy. The way the story moved from scene to scene–usually on a pov shift between Saka and Angus–had no natural flow to it. It was hard to tell how much time was lost between chapters. A lot of the times it would end with Angus in Demonside/Vinland, and the next chapter would have Angus back on the other side. Days, or even a week could have passed, but it never made it quite clear enough to the readers. Even though a lot of the times I could kinda guess that nothing important had happened in the missing time, there were some times where it felt like I missed out on things that I really should have seen for myself, instead of having related to me by other characters. There were several deaths in this book that had maybe a tenth of the impact they could have had, mostly because we don’t get to see them happen. The characters are sad that the people died…but I never was. It felt very removed and closed off, when it should have done <i>something</i> to me.<br><br>I did find the way the relationship(s) in this book progressed to work a bit better for me. At least by the end. I am not, and never have been, a huge fan of love-triangles. They annoy me. The whole thing with Terrance in the first book was probably one of my least favorite things about the story. Mostly because I could tell that it was bugging Saka. I’m totally cool with non-monogamous relationships, but they kinda have to be agreed on by<i> all </i>parties, and I could tell that Saka was not happy about Angus’ growing relationship with the other human. I think this story did at least start to move the whole love-triangle into a more palatable direction, for me at least, by the end of this book. I’m not sure what the next book will have in store but if it continues on the path it seems to be taking, I’ll be happy.<br><br>I was less happy with the way the book handled the Underground though. It all seemed a bit to cliched for my tastes. Maybe if they had spent some time going into why they would act this way, given us some clues as to what changed their outlook–or if indeed it did ever change–I would have bought their part of the story more. In fact the whole Underground aspect of this book was very underwritten. There were not many characters given more that just vague outlines, and I never got a feel for who they were, why they did what they did, how they operated, who was in charge, or what the end goal was. Much like the college they seem to be there just to push Angus more towards Saka and Demonside. I really do wish that the author had fleshed out this part of the book, because as it stands they just came off as cliched and a bit boring. Where I think they were supposed to be the antagonist of this story, I never really felt it from them. I certainly didn’t like them, but they always felt like more of a side boss, than a Big Bad. Which is unfortunate since there really wasn’t any one thing in this book to push the story to any type of climax and the story faltered near the end because of it.<br><br>This book just barely eked out a four-star rating from me. There were some real flaws in this story that almost kept me from rating it this high. But in the end…and I do mean the very end…it did manage to pull itself together enough for me to say that I did like it more than the first story. Just barely, but still. I do like this world, with its very grey morality and dark tone, but I’m kind a hoping that book three will have a bit tighter structure. It feels like all the ingredients are here to make a truly awesome story, and each entry is getting the recipe a bit closer, but it hasn’t reached perfection yet. But that doesn’t mean that what’s here isn’t worth consuming. It is still a good story, and it left me actually excited to see what will happen next.<br><br><br><i>This book was provided free in exchange for a fair and honest review for Love Bytes. Go there to check out other reviews, author interviews, and all those awesome giveaways. Click below.</i><br><a href="http://lovebytesreviews.com/2018/05/23/new-release-review-rogue-in-the-making-studies-in-demonology-2-by-t-j-nichols/" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1513296663i/24680153._SX540_.jpg" alt="lovebytesfordaniwordpresscover5b" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a>

<i>A <a href="http:joyfullyjay.com" rel="nofollow noopener">Joyfully Jay</a> review. <br /><br /><b>4.5 stars</b></i><br /><br />Oh, I have been waiting for this sequel to Warlock in Training for more than a year, and I greedily grabbed it up as soon as I could. Nichols has created such a facisntating and well developed world in this series, and I couldn’t wait to escape back into it and see where the adventure would take Angus and Saka next. This book is so much more than romance, though there are those elements (albeit in a somewhat untraditional way), but it’s about right and wrong, good and evil, and the balance of power.<br /><br />The characters really drive the story here and their own struggles and growth throughout it make the book come alive. Angus is in a much more solid place now, and he’s learning to play the game so that he can do the most good, both in Demonside and in Humanside. I love that he’s come into his own and not afraid to stand up for what he wants and what he believes in. He’s not perfect, of course, as he’s still growing into himself. But the things he’s learned at Saka’s side have helped him develop and he’s not going to rest on his laurels.<br /><br /><b>Read Kris’ review in its entirety <a href="http://joyfullyjay.com/2018/05/review-rogue-in-the-making-by-tj-nichols/" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Soooooo goooooooood! Review to come. ???

Nothing much happened, despite the fact the book was fairly lengthy. The Resistance is evil too, blah blah. We are from two different worlds, blah blah. Hey surprise, let's make this a m/m/m book.<br /><br />Maybe something will happen in the third one?

Book – Rogue in the Making (Studies in Demonology #2)<br />Author – T.J. Nichols<br />Star rating - ★★★★★<br />No. of Pages – 284<br />Cover – Gorgeous<br />POV – 3rd person, dual character POV<br />Would I read it again – Yes!<br />Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Paranormal, Demons<br />Content Warning – love triangle, blood magic, sex magic, sacrifice<br /><br /><br />** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **<br />Reviewed for Divine Magazine<br /><br /><br />I've been waiting what feels like forever for this book to come out. Book 1 ended on a semi-cliffhanger, certainly a HFN, and I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.<br /><br />Again, this was a rollercoaster of emotion. The love triangle of Angus, Terrance and Saka was back with a bang that had a much greater impact, because Angus and Terrance actually spent more time together during this book, than they did in book 1. The prospect of them becoming a poly relationship in the next book is great, because I really didn't want Angus to give up on Saka.<br /><br />I felt the split world dynamics much more acutely in this book, since Angus truly did spend half his time in Vinland and half his time in Demonside/Arlyxia. There was adventure on both sides and, despite how complex and well written the world building was in book 1, there was even more of it done here. The world building continued and compounded upon everything we'd learned in book 1, to add more scope and more complexity to the Demonside/Arlyxia world as well as the human/Vinland world. By explaining the situation with the other continents, such as the Mayan Empire, the world has grown bigger and more capable of carrying on such an expanding plot.<br /><br />Truthfully, I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn't make my mountain of notes, like I usually do. I just marked a few notes of important things and let myself fly free to enjoy the story without interruption.<br /><br />In terms of plot, this one really needs to be read as part of a series. You can't just dip into book 2 without reading book 1, first. I know there's a Previously note at the beginning, that recaps the main plot points of book 1, and there's the usual recap during the main text/storytelling as Angus recovers from the wounds inflicted at the end of book 1, but you just have to read the first sentence to know that this should be read like a series, each book flowing from one to the next without pause.<br /><br />The plot picks up right where we left off, when Angus was so nearly fatally stabbed his father, at the end of book 1. I love that it doesn't waste time between those events, because every small moment in this world is important and I didn't want to miss a thing.<br /><br />Like book 1, for being less than 300 pages, it reads like a 500+ page novel. There is so much intricacy to the world building and the characters that a whole lot happens in those &lt;300 pages. Sometimes I put it down to digest, to think about what's happened, to contemplate the messes made and the mysteries to be unravelled as I let it all soak in. Sometimes I just can't help but let my eyes skim ahead and then curse myself for it and go back to the start.<br /><br />I won't say anything about the plot that's too revealing. It was good to learn the truth about Jim and Angus' break-up, and it was good to see more of the Underground and what they were actually doing. It was also nice for Angus to make friends with some of the trainees in Demonside and find allies amongst the enemy. I also really loved the slight change in dynamics between Angus and Saka. It wasn't pure, blind trust or devotion anymore. Angus really grew up at the end of book 1 and we see the result of that here; he's stronger, more cautious, and he doesn't do anything blindly. He's still a little rash, but he's barely 20 and those things are totally normal for a kid his age. I liked seeing him learn and adapt his magic, to undergo his lessons with Saka and Usi, to learn the art of magic and wield it with skill. It was also interesting to see Saka and Usi finally face off, to see Miniti take a side and make a decision about Angus' fate, when she's been hesitant to rock the boat until now.<br /><br />There were old and new characters alike, and they were all written with expert skill and depth.<br /><br />Yes, I'm a little devastated that it took a year for book 2 to release and might take another year before I can read book 3, but I don't mind. With this book's release, I got to revisit book 1 and reexplore the world all over again. When book 3 releases, I'll get to experience another revisit to books 1 and 2, leading into book 3, so it's all for the good on my end. These are books that I'll be re-reading constantly anyway, so it's another excuse for me to buy the paperbacks and have them at the ready for the release of the next installment. As far as I'm concerned, it can go on forever and ever and I won't complain.<br /><br />~<br /><br />Was there anything I didn't like?<br />Yes, there were a few editing issues. About three, according to my notes, which is pretty amazing for an advanced copy. I also wasn't too keen on the Previously section, which was a basic bullet point list of events that happened in book 1. Maybe if it had been a 1st person recap by Angus, or some sort of Prequel dream sequence it might have worked better, but it's the first Previously section I've ever seen in a book and I didn't really see the point of it, since it picked up exactly where book 1 left. Because it can't be read as a standalone and it's advertised as part of a series, I'm not sure it was required.<br /><br />But, saying that, I didn't let it reflect my rating because it's all personal opinion and it didn't affect the story or the world building at all.<br /><br />~<br /><br />Favourite Quotes<br /><br />“It would be easier if Angus tore Saka's heart free and left it in the sand for a scarlips, but Angus would never do that.”<br /><br />““I like you.”<br />Angus gave him a sideways glance. “It's not that hard to say 'I love you.'”<br />But Saka had never said those words to anyone. Angus was the first person he'd ever loved.”

I liked the direction this story moved things along to overall. I wasn't particularly enjoying the love triangle that was introduced in the first book, but as everything goes to hell in a hand basket in this book I liked the direction ultimately looks to be taking things with that. <br /><br />I like Angus and Saka together. They're different and those differences drive them to learn more about each other. Terrance on the other hand was a little on the outs for me. As another human he didn't intrigue me as much. But his devotion to Angus and his willingness to do what is necessary slowly is winning me over. <br /><br />I definitely like Demonside better. Their world and rules may be harsh, but they're not needlessly cruel. At least most of them. The idea of balance is key in the greater storyline and I enjoy the premise.

i personally liked the first book better then this one but this one was really good also. it was enjoyable and fast paced. the characters interesting and made me smile. it was a good story with lots of action and adventure. <br />

As more details emerge about this story’s world where Demonside and Humanside need to be in balance to survive, the stakes increase as new dangers come out of the woodwork. The Warlock College of Vinland is as unscrupulous as ever, but the underground turns out to be less than reliable and just as power-hungry as the “official” warlocks running the College. It puts Angus right in the middle, questioning his loyalties and forcing him to look at the entire situation in a new light. He desperately wants to save both worlds, but the problem is far more complex than he assumed. And due to this complexity, I definitely recommend to read these books in order – you will have a really hard time understanding what’s going on otherwise.<br /><br /><br />Please find my full review on <a href="http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com/book-reviews/rogue-in-the-making-studies-in-demonology-2-by-tj-nichols" rel="nofollow noopener">Rainbow Book Reviews</a>.<br />