I liked this one less than the first one. It felt like not much happened and it dragged. l liked that it focused on plot points other than just the romance, as a lot of these types of books do in the second of a series. But it seems like the whole war is being fought on emotion, and seems silly that a couple of teenagers are making the decisions. 
It also got annoying how much Mare thinks she's better than everyone else. She is a teenager, of course, so that's kind of to be expected. But it's not only implied-- she quite literally says, multiple times, that her life is the most important. Which doesn't really make any sense now that there are so many "new bloods". She also clearly thinks that being a new blood is better than both silver or red. I find it annoying how the blood classes are so clearly fighting against each other being in charge but not fighting toward any real equality or shared prosperity. The silvers think they're better, the reds hate all silvers. New bloods should be somewhere in between, or both, but she's trying to teach them that they're inherently better than either because they're a new mutation.

A friend suggested this series and I'm going to finish it for that if not just because it's fairly entertaining while working night shift for a few weeks. It's a YA series and I think I have just forgotten a lot of the unfortunate side effects of the tropes involved.