Rae managed to survive the first book of the Time of Iron series, the universally hated character she inhabits originally didn't, but she greatly altered the lives of several characters including her favorite sociopath, the prophesied Emperor himself. She accidentally betrayed him to his death but it's okay because he still returned from the dead with his undead army and now plans to conquer the world with Rae as his wife. Ah true love, he doesn't trust her or believe anything Rae says but he'll decapitate anyone who insults her. Rae quickly comes to the conclusion that the sarcastic unpredictable sociopath isn't nearly as entertaining he was in the book but she feels guilty about his death and decides that finding him the right wife might help him find happiness. It might also have something to do with a god telling Rae that she's not worthy of being his wife but if she saves him from the second prophecy the god will send her back home. If she fails she'll just die horribly. If only Key knew about the second prophecy or knew what happiness was.
The cast of characters has scattered in several directions. Eric, a guy from Earth who turned his homeless character into the infamous Golden Cobra is going with Marcus to save the latter's sister from dying in a fire. Every time the plot of the book has shifted she still dies in a fire. Marcus knows his bloodline to be cursed with a berserker rage but with his book knowledge Eric knows it's much deeper than that and intends to save not just the sister but the man he's falling in love with. Lia, the Cinderella to Rae's evil stepsister character takes refuge from the undead hordes with a former lover and takes Rae's maid with her. But both the blacksmith they're staying with and Lia are plotting against the new emperor and the maid gets caught in the middle. The northern invaders are still attacking the walls claiming that Rae threatened the life of their King when she sent warning that he was being poisoned and they have an artificial dragon.
I preferred the first book but this is a good sequel with enough twists at the end to set up for book three. Rae and Eric soon figure out that it's harder to alter the plot than they expected because it's fighting back. This version of the characters is also far deeper than the readers on Earth realized so what they do with the current plot often surprises Rae and Eric to their detriment. Are Rae and Key really in a relationship? Hard to say since Rae cares about Key and wants him to be happy but he the "emperor" terrifies her. Key has never been able to trust anyone but he didn't think Rae was lying about them being a team in the first book so what looked like her betrayal seems to have broken something in him so he seems confused about how he feels. I guess I'll have to wait for book three to figure it out.