Lout of Count's Family Vol. 2

This isn't a mystery series, so sometimes it's a little frustrating to read the book, knowing that Cale is making important decisions based on information that readers don't get to know about until after it's already happened.

There's a war coming, and he's doing everything in his power to prepare. In this book, he spends the majority of the time gathering allies and laying groundwork for his future plans. 

One of the major premises of this series is that we see Cale/Roksu foiling the plot of the original "The Birth of a Hero" novel with his previous knowledge. It's pretty integral to the setup, so I'm surprised that by the end of the book, Cale has run out of his "future knowledge". I honestly thought it would take longer to get to this point. 

Minor frustrations aside, I do enjoy reading about the prep work. Of course, Cale also ends up charming a bunch more side characters, who are convinced of his goodness. Although Kim Roksu maintains his "selfish" self-image, it's clear from his actions that he clearly cares about his family, his new found friends, and his children (all of the young strays he's picked up here and there). Everybody is actively working to get stronger so they can protect each other.

In other series, the "war arc" usually happens towards the end, and it's a massive spectacle with multiple moving characters with differing motives. It's also a chance for the heroes to show off their new abilities that they've trained. In this series, the war arc seems to be coming up fast, and Cale absolutely is not the type to fight. While both he and his found family are definitely becoming stronger, I'm curious about how he'll end up "winning" the war and coming out on top.

Also: I realized that the series name is actually "Lout of Count's Family" instead of "Lout of the Count's Family", which honestly is probably grammatically incorrect? It sounds weird and doesn't flow as well. Anyways, I fixed the tag, but left the 1st post as is since I think it's funny.