I had the same issue with this book as I did with Blade Breaker. There's just so much filler. Why is so much of this book just fluff! 

I found it really hard to love any of the characters. They were all half decent, but I never felt like it went beyond that. I enjoyed the plot a lot. It was a great idea, and I truly just wish there was more of it. Not a lot happened in this series at all. There were the big bang moments (like the beginning of this book) and a huge lull (for almost the entire rest of this book) and then a smaller bang on our way out. It was extremely underwhelming. 

I also wish that we got to see more of what happened to Erida and Taristan instead of a fade to black. For so much build-up in this series, the end was beyond Lackluster. 

My rating is for the overall plot of this book because I did love it. And I liked the characters well enough, even if I didn't love any of them.