For not having been wow-ed by the first book, I have to say that this one was really impressive. I think I was surprised at how much I liked it, and to be honest, it may be one of the best "second books" I've ever read. It has its own developments (character and plot) separate from the first and that set up what looks to be a different challenge/development for the third. The relationship between Day and June is pretty well done, I enjoy them and their reactions to each other. I think their separate points of view are different enough to be warranted and also used well...their internal struggles about whether to trust each other and their concerns over their relationship make things more real and take out the "true love at first sight without question even though we barely know each other and have nothing in common" that YA fantasy books always seem to fall into the trap of. That is quite important to me. Also, I think this book was better than the first because you do get some explanation for a few of the things that make no sense in the first (the plagues, why the gov't is killing kids, etc.) and in retrospect makes the first one better also. I think I was not expecting this because most YA books don't do that. It made this one deeper. And though there were still the "too much explaining" and so-so dialogue pitfalls, the rest of this book overcame those. And I'm excited for the last one now! Plus, I have to admit I got emotional at the end when Day decided to "leave" June and not tell her the real story.