Are you the sort of reader who gets irritated when characters are just one good conversation away from understanding each other? Then Suji Kim's Under the Oak Tree may not be the novel series for you. As anyone who has read the original digital release of the webnovel version can tell you, Maxi and Riftan are often in that exact position, coming close to figuring each other out, but always pulling up short. It is annoying, but in this second volume, we get a better idea of why they are that way, which helps to mitigate the pain.

As readers already know from the first novel, Riftan has a very skewed idea of what Maxi's life was like before she married him. As far as he knows – and as he frequently implies – as Duke Croyso's oldest daughter, Maxi lived in the lap of luxury. Riftan, who in this volume admits to Maxi that he was born into poverty and had to fight to attain his current social status, is therefore living in fear that he won't be able to make his wife happy. When he talks about draping her in silks and jewels, he believes he's treating her in the style to which she is accustomed. When he doesn't want her to have to work, even though she's making strides in her magic studies under sorcerer Ruth, he thinks that's a boon he can offer her, part of the life of ease he mistakenly thinks she's lived. He's trying his best.

The problem arises when you know what Maxi's life actually was like. Although this volume is devoid of the violence and abuse that marked her life with her father in volume one, those scenes are very much present in her mind, and they inform her every decision. Where Riftan dreads scaring his wife off with his supposed brutality, Maxi lives in fear of him realizing that she's simply not worth it, that her father was right all along, and that she's a waste of space. She desperately wants to be useful to her husband, and everything she does is in service of that.

Needless to say, this can make for some frustrating moments when Riftan and Maxi are essentially acting at cross purposes. Nothing shows that better than Princess Agnes' surprise visit to Calypse Castle. Agnes, you may recall, was the top choice for Riftan to marry, pushed for by no less a personage than her father, the king. Riftan steadfastly refused to marry the princess, but Maxi can't shake the feeling that she would have been the better choice – especially since Agnes is an accomplished sorceress who accompanied Riftan on his missions. Riftan goes out of his way to tell Maxi that he has zero interest in Agnes on any level, but she's been so frequently torn down that she can't bring herself to believe him.

At the front of the book, author Suji Kim notes that there are elements of Under the Oak Tree that might be triggering for some readers, particularly as it pertains to mental health. Whether or not you're a fan of content warnings, Kim's warning speaks to Maxi as a character just as much as it does to potential readers of her work. Maxi is a survivor of domestic abuse. That defines her as a person, and all of her actions are based on her attempts to move from “victim” to “survivor.” She has PTSD and more anxiety than one human frame should be asked to hold. She's moving forward in meaningful ways in this volume, but it's not easy, and it's not always easy to read about. In fact, I worry that perhaps I was too glib to suggest that a simple, honest conversation could solve the issues between the main couple, because I don't think that, at this point, Maxi is necessarily able to have that conversation. The only level she's able to be fully honest with Riftan on is in their sex life, and then that comes with his concern that he's too big and brutish to inflict himself on her small body. This is a feature of the series, not a bug.

Despite her issues, Maxi makes real headway in this volume. Part of that comes down to her learning that she's strong enough to rise to the occasion – the magic she began learning in the first novel means that there are some cases where she is the only person who can help. She doesn't hesitate to go when she's needed, and even though Riftan's overreaction and displeasure when she's injured, healing knights ultimately cannot prevent her from doing what she can. Much as Agnes can be read as a mild antagonist, she's also instrumental in helping Maxi to recognize her own talents as a healer. And as Maxi learns her own worth, Riftan begins to change his views as well, although his number one priority is always her safety, even if that means he thinks he has to “save” her from herself.

Under the Oak Tree's second hardcover release is just as beautiful as the first, and the story makes real progress, both in terms of Maxi's relationship with her husband and with herself. Less grim than the first, it develops the story's world more thoroughly, even as it elaborates on its central theme: fear and love cannot coexist comfortably, and sometimes you have to trust…both others and yourself.