Oh yeah, this is what dreams are made of. I fucking adored this book! Iron Widow is already one of my favourite books ever, so this had A LOT to live up to and it just easily jumped over it. I do have to say that this is quite different from Iron Widow. That book is a fast-paced action adventure, with politics hiding under the surface. This book is political intrigue, with an action adventure hiding under the surface. It did definitely feel like a natural progression for this series, but it's just a change in vibes that you might want to be aware of.
The ending of book 1 truly shook things up for this world, and therefore the start of this book mainly focusses on Zetian, as well as the reader, getting used to this new normal plus setting up the new political system. I overall think the transition into these massive changes was just extremely well executed. As I mentioned before this book is A LOT of political intrigue. That personally is something I like in books so I had a blast. I feel like Xiran Jay Zhao clearly has such a strong grip on her world, and I loved seeing everything unfold, and seeing all the different moves the different characters made to get their shit done. It was just so incredibly well written, and it truly had me shocked at times as I too was fooled by some character's moves. 
Zetian in this book is incredible though. We also spend quite a lot of time with Zetian just learning a lot of things she wasn't able to before because previously she was kept from education. I truly liked that she acknowledged she didn't know everything, and took the effort to learn because she saw it as something that could only help her forward. And it did! As Zetian learns more it's clear in the narrative that she just becomes stronger in this political game everyone is playing. It was great to see that developement throughout the book.
The plot was also just so good. I was captivated from beginning to end, and I just didn't want to put this book down. Despite not being as action packed, this definitely was still as much of a ride as book one was, just in a different way. It truly made me feel ALL the emotions, and the expansion we got on the world was also incredibly interesting. Overall this book went in so many different directions I didn't see coming but I still had a fantastic time with. The only complaint I have is that I need the next book like almost immediately because that ending was BRUTAL.