4.5/5 The only reason this is not a full 5 stars is because the ending killed me. It did not end on a positive note and so many characters are so frustrating evil it drives me crazy. I will say I enjoyed reading this book probably more than Grace of Kings but I enjoyed the story more in Grace of Kings. I enjoyed reading this one more mainly because I knew the characters and places from the last book and it didn’t hop around as much with point of views. I did feel like Grace of Kings overall story was better and I enjoyed all the battles. Wall of Storms did not really have any battles except for towards the end.I do feel like there is a lot more character depth in Wall of Storms, you get to know a few certain characters really well. But the focus is on different characters from Grace of Kings even though some of those characters are still involved. The world is bigger in this book, a new people group gets introduced in this book. The Lyucu, and they are brutal. As with Grace of Kings though, the world is and story is so well fleshed out, you can picture everything perfectly.Even though I am not happy with the ending of this book or most of the characters, I do like how this book is able to make me angry and frustrated with the characters because they are so well done. I am so invested with this world; I do care and I need everything to work out.At this point I do want to give a warning that I am going to be giving spoilers for Grace of Kings since Wall of Storms takes place after it and there may be some key spoilers if you have not read the book yet.Wall of Storms takes place a few years after Grace of Kings. Kuni is emperor and his children are growing up as princes and princesses. The focus of this book is mainly on the children and Empress Jia (who I despise). Jia is seriously the worst and the most devious. There are 4 children, Timu, Thera, Phyro and Fara (her mother died in childbirth—she was a different consort). Jia feels threatened by Risana’s child, Phyro, because he is the most like Kuni, so she is worried he will be picked as heir. Jia tries to influence politics around her and tries to run the empire a certain way behind everyone’s back, which ends up with a lot of backstabbing and betrayals. (as I mentioned, she is the worst).I hate that this is a Jia quote but it is pretty good: “True courage comes not from being certain and unafraid but from doing what must be done even while being terrified and full of doubts.”The story also focuses a lot of Zomi and Luan. Zomi is a student of Luan and you get to enjoy a story of her experiences with Luan and what she does with that knowledge. The other main new characters are the Lyucu and I do not have much to say about them other than they are brutal and terrible. The gruesomeness that takes place in their story is pretty bad at times, which makes me glad this is a book and not a movie so it can’t haunt my nightmares. There are some good moments with Gin as well, which I enjoy her character and her strengths with battle strategy.I will say I enjoyed this book a lot but I am sad by where the ending ended up and all the characters that died. I do not want to give any spoilers but a part of my excitement for this series died due to the loss of so many good characters and the remaining of terrible ones. I do want to continue with the series but I am saddened by the current story ending point.