Perhaps 2.5, but I don't know. 
 What I can mostly say about this book is that it dragged. It went on and on and on, and was extremely slow, and although the writing was good I still managed to find myself bored. Nothing seemed to be happening, except at certain times when everything seemed to be happening. I didn't ever feel the need to finish it, and in fact Charlie and Sean had to spur me on to get through the last 50 pages the evening I finally finished it. 
 The writing was good, and there were words that I did not understand, which frankly was a bit shocking for YA literature (however stuck up that sounds ... #englishlitstudent) but I think that perhaps there was a bit too much of it; a lot of it seemed to not actually be advancing the story in any way, and this was why it seemed to drag so much and why it was so damn unenjoyable in parts! 
 Another thing that added to the unenjoyableness of this book was - yes, you got it - the romance and the characters themselves! 
 What was Taylor's idea in adding so many new characters who will turn out to be super important into the last book? Shouldn't they have been introduced - properly - earlier on than this? Surely they should have, and then we would, theoretically, care about them more when it came down to it. The Eliza woman seemed utterly pointless and annoyed me the whole way through, and I was totally and completely unsurprised at where her story went. 
 The Stelians also seemed to me to be pretty pointless, Mary-Sue angels who are so powerful that what even is the point n anything else? (view spoiler)[Yeah, Festival wanted the bad things that all the other angels didn't (rape by Jael and Joram?) and then to be murdered, and she could have done something about it but just ... didn't!? How the hell am I to believe that? And the main one, Queen Scarab, wanted to kill Akiva so he would be part of a super special harp thing? ... I know they're Angels but seriously? (hide spoiler)] Okay, I literally didn't see the point in the Stelians. Yeah, they show part of the reason for Akiva's ultra-power, but I really feel like the main bulk of their storyline (view spoiler)[- Cataclysm - (hide spoiler)] should have been cut out of this book and made into a separate book. It seems like Taylor was trying to cram too much in! 
 Akiva is such a Gary-Marty-Larry-Stu that I almost puke whenever he comes onscreen ... onpage? Like bloody hell, he's beautiful and he's brilliant and he's powerful and oh oh oh Karou loves him so so much even though she's known him for ... not long ... and he has killed a lot of her people. Come on. Akiva is probably one of the top ten hated characters. Karou herself is obviously dumb as hell. 
 Ziri loved Karou, but as we know, Karou: Maker of Bad Decisions, is still in love with Mr-Stu. And in true form, Karou and mr-creepy Akiva himself end up together, and was there any doubt about that ever? Nooooopppeee. (view spoiler)[ So what happens? Oh! He gets palmed off on the 'asexual' (or read as so by many) character Liraz, the only single female out of the main lot! And what ensues but a shitty and forced romance between these two characters!? (hide spoiler)] Zuzana and Mik's romance is still ridiculous and Zuzana is still extremely irritating and childish; she's always described as an angry and kind-of formidable human but...? I never see this! 
 One of the things that I did enjoy about this book was some good things that Taylor said that are important to us here and now. Unfortunately I can't get quotes because I have given this book back to the library, but : 1. Eliza's sarcasm that women, especially black women can never be angels. and 2 How would the world react to angels arriving in a Christian country talking of beasts coming, and then soon after, what seem like demons are found in a Muslim country? Come on, you can probably guess how people would react; it wouldn't be good. 
 Other than that ... I'm pretty glad this series is over. It is such a shame, because I so wanted to enjoy it. The writing in the series and the premise of it was quite good (if a little cliche) and Prague and the Kasbahs sound bangin' ; I wanna go to both. I also really liked the art in the first book and may reread it skim-style just for that and Prague. But other than that, I am disappointed.