Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli

Britt's take

Book 2 in the Artefacts of Ouranos series — start with Trial of the Sun Queen first. This book answers the questions you had when you finished book 1. The world expands and the characters become more real. The flashbacks interspersed throughout give you the context you've been missing — what happened to Lor's family, the last Heart Queen — but still leave enough open to keep you hungry. The relationship between Nadir and Lor is the definition of a slow burn, but this one is spicier than the first. If you loved Trial of the Sun Queen for the breakneck pace and plot, know going in that this trades some of that for character work. That's not a bad thing — it's just setting us up for a lot of action come book 3.