This was less enjoyable than book #1 because it moves super rapidly and the romance basically relies on the soulmate spark to make Ash do a 180 in personality. Part of the issue, I think, is that the POVs in third person jumped between the sisters, Mary-Lynette, and Ash so the mystery angle is pretty quickly ruined by the shared POVs and by really, really, really obvious clues (which is bad because the romance is instant and the "mystery" aspects take up the majority of the story). Despite the protagonist being 17 or 18, the story is super simple and we barely even get a kiss.I don't know if at 24 in this modern age that I'm desensitized and need more complex and mature media to be engaged or if even in 1997 this book was relatively clean and basic considering because it's a story that's so simple the entire book can be explained in like one paragraph. I suppose that because Ash was in book #1 that that's supposed to count for some sort of character intro and that we're supposed to feel like he has some development, but he's bland and Mary-Lynette, while thankfully not annoying, didn't really stand out. Her dating profile would be "no nonsense, likes stars." The sisters were a bit more interesting, but this book tried to focus on a connecting story between Mary-Lynette, Mark, Ash, and the girls, so the sisters didn't get much time to develop outside of: Rowan is gentle and eldest, Kestrel is feral, Jade likes cats and boys and is sweet. The idea could have worked out okay, but it was unbearably boiled down to its bones. Also there's a lot of animal death in this book which made me sad.