Oh, middle book syndrome, how I wish you weren’t real. I was really excited for this book, and one of my most anticipated. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit like the first book did. Luckily, I buddy read this with Julie!

One of my biggest complaints with this book is how slow it is. It took about 75% of the book before the plot actually picks up. It was lost somewhere in Lore’s inner monologue’s. I’m not kidding. Most of this book is just Lore convincing herself she’s “not in love, in love, in like, or something” with these boys. It was so repetitive and drove me nuts. It was a messy love triangle and I felt like it took a whole book to get anywhere. Bastian was one that I figured out quickly. I’m glad that I did because otherwise we were on Tamlin levels, and that would have been hard to get through. I’m still team Bastian after everything!

I’ve touched a little on Lore but I don’t have much more to say. I found her character boring at times. Most of the characters are unimpressive throughout this one. It’s one thing to have little to no plot, but to have these characters just stagnant is another. It didn’t feel like anything new and characters I’ve read before.

With all that being said, the ending was what saved this book for me. A lot of things happen and many of the stakes rise. It made it for a very interesting ending, making me want to reach for the next book. I wish she would have started the end of the book in the middle because it would have made for a much more interesting story. It felt like a book filled with a messy love triangle to get to that third book. I do hope the third book will be full of much more action because there’s a lot of moving pieces now.

Overall, this book was just okay. It didn’t really do much for me, and it had almost no plot until the end. The characters were lackluster too. She did set up for a very interesting book three that I will read!

Thank you to Orbit for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!