As much as I liked the first book, I feel like this one is much better. It uses its tropes much more effectively. The story pacing is the same, so, consistency! Yay! Wish I could do that! I'm trying to figure out the exact wording to compare this book to the first but I think it's important to make the comparison. Part of me wants to the say that the first book had a somewhat generic feel to it, but that doesn't feel right because it was a very fun book with a really neat story, but I'm going to go with that, but the writing didn't have an unique feeling to it that specifically told me that this is Amelie Wen Zhao's book versus thirty dozen other books. This one doesn't have that feeling. Only one person could have written Red Tigress and that puts me in mind that the first book was being...safe. The writing in Red Tigress is a lot more confident. It's hard to say that it makes this book more engaging because the first one was also very engaging.Now, a bit of comparison to series books. It's been popular to write books in multiple parts in recent years. They're everywhere and it's actually really hard to find a fantasy book that's just a story. No, "To be continued..." BS that's very offputting. This is where I get into the spoiler. I'm not going to describe the scene, or any aspect of the book, but this is definitely a spoiler that could ruin it for some people, so stop reading if you're the type of person who can't read a book once you know anything significant about the ending..............SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILERWhat happens so often in these series books that makes me avoid them so much is that Book 1 ends in a major defeat for the hero, which absolutely happens in Blood Heir. Book 2 ends in a major defeat for the hero and so on and so forth. It's annoying, and that doesn't happen Red Tigress. It's hard to say that the ending is a win for the hero given what happens to her, but it's definitely a major victory for her and everyone she's close to. This is something authors don't do in their series books, and it shows, I feel, a lack of confidence in their story. In series books, so often, the protagonist has to keep losing, losing, losing until the last book where they are finally allowed to win. For Red Tigress to end on a clear victory for the protagonist, regardless of what she loses, really shows that Zhao trusts her story to stand on its own, and it really makes me eager to read the third book, once I have the money to buy it.SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER ENDConclusion: I love this book, and am eager to read the next one, once I'm able to purchase, and I highly recommend the entire series based on what I've read so far.