I rated this 3 stars, which in hindsight may have been a bit high considering the fact that I bought the second book and have yet to read it. It's been sitting on my shelf for months, and at one point, when I had nothing to read and nothing to do, I looked at it and thought, "Oh hey, I could read that!" But then I didn't, because the first one gave me no conviction to read the second one. 
 But the fact that I bought the second one at all still remains. And so 3 stars it is.