This book was everything I wanted it to be. It actually physically hurts me when I think about the fact that I have to wait another year for the next book now. I thought this was a fantastic sequel. We had a lot more world building and got to see from the POV of more characters and that's my favorite part about reading books in a series-- the world and character development. I love so many characters in these books and it I'm constantly terrified for them because of how brutal Tahir's world is. I loved that this book dealt more with magic and magical creatures and I would love for the next book to go even deeper with that. I'll admit that the beginning of this one was a bit slow but it was so well-written that it didn't even matter to me. Plus, the amazing, action-packed second half more than made up for it.