Wild Lands (Savage Lands #2) – Stacey Marie Brown

Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Pages: 353
Release Date: February 9, 2021

Haven’t read the first novel, Savage Lands? Check out my review HERE!

Brexley has endured starvation and survived torture and even Warwick Farkas, the brutal legend who still haunts her like a ghost, spilling into her thoughts and life. His betrayal made her a prisoner of Killian, the gorgeous Fae Lord of Budapest. 

There her life takes another unforeseen twist, something that will change the fragile alliance between the humans and the fae, and Brexley finds herself in the middle.

As weeks go by, Brexley also discovers Killian isn’t the malicious leader she was told about. As they spend more time together, their relationship begins to shift. However, when an old acquaintance turns up, she is given the chance to escape the sexy fae leader, and her entire world explodes. 

Brexley is thrown into a nefarious web of politics, desire, betrayal, lies, and truths that will shatter her foundation and who she is, what she believes, and who can be trusted. No longer is there a clear line between good and bad.

Hunted by both sides, Brexley is on the run and must untangle all the lies, deceit, and deceptions, before she becomes another victim in the wild lands.

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Wild Lands is a vast improvement over its predecessor, Savage Lands. The biggest criticisms I had of Savage Lands, lack of answers and world building, were addressed making it easy for me to rate the novel a solid five stars.

Wild Lands finally gives readers answers. In the previous novel, Brexley came off as passive when it came to finding answers; however, in Wild Lands Brexley is aggressive in her pursuit making it a pleasure to read. Though not all the questions have been answered, I am satisfied and excited to continue reading this series.

Wild Lands also expands the world and its lore through the answers Brexley found. Brown has crafted a fairly complicated and segmented world, so it was difficult at times to grasp the world at large and certain implications to some of the bigger plot points, but by the end of the novel the direction of the series is clear.

The sexual tension between Brexley and Warwick is so good and only made better by their connection. This connection is interesting and unique and I cannot wait to explore it further in the coming novels. I think it’ll be both intensely satisfying and heartbreaking.

Mild spoilers:

The one criticism I have of the novel is Brown’s inclusion of Killian. After reading the synopsis, I assumed Brexley would be spending the majority of the novel with him; however, that’s not the case. Brown did not spend enough time developing Killian for him to feel like anything more than a shell of a character. Nor is there any significant development of Brexley’s relationship with him.

Overall, Wild Lands is a vast improvement on its predecessor by developing the world while deepening the connections between characters. I cannot wait to get my hands on Dead Lands.

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Have you read Wild Lands? What did you think?