Glass Sword (Red Queen #2) by Victoria Aveyard 
Publisher: Orion Books
Goodreads Summary: 
If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: 
After I finished Glass Sword, read the last sentence, my heart literally stopped. The ending, very much a cliffhanger, caused me actual pain.

Following on from Red Queen, Mare's character really develops. She struggles to remain sane, almost becoming a cold hearted mechanical killing machine. She turns to Julian's list for some relief, and it is a race to find other likes her before Maven does.

When I was near the end, a few chapters away, I had to go to bed. I told myself I would finish the chapter and leave I stayed true to that promise, but the last few sentences of that fateful chapter killed me. I was in absolute shock.

Since the beginning of Red Queen, I've shipped Cal and Mare. They're perfect for each other. They did get together, though rather briefly in Glass Sword, but I fel as if their relationship was more that they needed each other rather than love. I hope this changes in book three, because they both deserve to love each other and have a genuine relationship.

It seems that Victoria Aveyard, like some authors loves killing characters. The deaths in Glass Sword were many, but the last two definitely were the most significant. Many minds are damaged in Mare's quest for revenge, with "revenge brings pain" a major theme in Glass Sword. It goes without saying that if you haven't read Red Queen, it's a must read for YA Dystopia fans.


Purchase Location: Borrowed From Library
Edition:
Paperback
Buy the book:
Book Depository
Quotes: "If I am a Sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter."

"'Mare.' He grazes my arm and I flinch away, almost hitting the wall.

'Don't touch me anymore.'

The words sound like slamming a door. I suppose they are."

"Anyone, anything, can betray anyone. Even your own heart."
Recommended for: Fans of court intrigue and betrayals.