This is where you start to lose me. If I had not read this series with someone else, I would have stopped here. Unfortunately, my fate is to finish this train wreck. 

I truly started to dislike Niara in this sequel. It's obvious that I'm meant to be rooting for her, but I find her nauseatingly immature. Why is she so self-righteous? Why does no one call her out on anything? Is it so we can pretend that she is competent? Plus, her love interest, Tarquinn, is an inconsequential milksop, so who really cares if they end up together? 

To be honest, I don't even care where the side stepping plot goes from here. I have a feeling it's just going to be whatever this girl was able to get past her editor and based off this those standards are low.