If Jes sneaking into the Fives while torn between her Patron father and Efean mother hooked you, you'll love how Kestrel, a high-born strategist, and Arin, an enslaved Valorian subject, play a dangerous game of attraction and rebellion. Like Jes and Kalliarkos navigating Lord Gargaron’s traps and a society that would never permit their bond, Kestrel and Arin test loyalties and outwit court expectations with every move.

Jes’s fight to save her sisters after Lord Gargaron tears her family apart mirrors Laia’s desperate bargain to infiltrate an imperial academy to rescue her captured brother. If the Patron–Efean tension and the way Jes outmaneuvers an occupying power gripped you, Laia and Elias’s struggle inside the Martial Empire will hit the same nerve—stealth, sacrifice, and defiance against a system built to crush them.

If you relished Jes deciphering Patron politics and surviving Lord Gargaron’s machinations from the margins, Maia’s ascent to an imperial court that wants him gone offers that same pulse of peril and cleverness. The intricate protocols and quiet standoffs echo Jes’s tightrope walk between Efean roots and Patron expectations, trading the Fives arena for a throne room where every bow is a blade.

Jes’s transformation—from secret runner to someone who claims her own path despite her father’s rank and Lord Gargaron’s control—parallels Katsa’s journey to question the violent "Grace" she’s been forced to wield. If watching Jes protect Maraya, Bettany, and Amaya while discovering her own strength moved you, Katsa’s bond with Po and her choice to use power on her own terms will resonate.

If the adrenaline of Jes racing the Fives—calculating jumps, reading traps, and risking everything to keep her family safe after Gargaron’s power play—had you riveted, Katniss’s cunning in the arena will feel instantly familiar. The survival puzzles, public spectacle, and the fierce promise to a younger sister echo Jes’s grit and tactical mind under ruthless scrutiny.