Again DISCLAIMER I am friends with the author, however if you read my review of the first book I hope you'll see I'm pretty even handed and unbiased.

Ok that out of the way, I really enjoyed the book. First of all, definitely less of a doorstop than book 1 :-). More importantly, I felt the list of primary characters was much more manageable and I was able to become engaged with them more easily. I'd give it 4.5 stars but couldn't quite pull the trigger on 5.

The best part was that this felt like there was more action than the prior book and the pacing was excellent. It felt fast paced without being rushed. While the first book felt to be clearly JV fantasy this seemed to straddle the gap between JV and YA and made for a better reading experience for me. There's nothing in here that would prevent a strong, younger reader for enjoying it but it felt slightly darker with the risks more real.

The characters were interesting and worthy of empathy.