3 stars

I received a copy of this book from Book Riot.

I am going to start this by saying I read this without having read the first book, which is something that I really do not recommend. With some book series, you can jump in whenever, and you miss some stuff, but for the most part you can get along. This book is not one of those. There were a lot of characters, places, and relationships that I had no background for which made the book harder to read. I looked up information I needed to know, but still feel like I missed out on important details having started with book two.

With that in mind, it took me a long time to get into this book. I found the first half of the book rather dull and Lia’s character really immature. This series seems to follow the standard formula for young adult books: a “special” main character who in reality isn’t all that special, a love triangle (or whatever shape this ends up being), and that strange phenomenon where every man falls hopelessly in love with or is strongly attracted to the “special” female lead. The first half of this book didn’t really seem to go anywhere and I was left waiting around for something interesting to happen.

However, after the first 250 or so pages, the plot actually seems to start. Once the action gets going, the book is pretty interesting, despite the whole love triangle situation. Lia becomes a little more palatable, mostly because enough was happening around her that I could ignore most of her irritating remarks. But she also does seem a little more active the second half, not just sitting around thinking about Kaden and Rafe. She makes calculated choices and actually does things to further the plot, making her character seem at least a little worthwhile.

Overall, this is an okay book. I gave it three stars, because I really got into it at the end, but struggled so much getting through the first half. I will most likely not be continuing the series, despite the cliff hanger ending.