While I wasn't as immediately drawn into Cassel's world in White Cat, I found it one that I'd be more than happy to visit again. It was Black's attention to details such as Cassel implanting amulets under his skin to avoid being worked that kept me reading. This one follows along the same lines as the previous book, being a story that was a little tedious at times but still a fun ride for the most part. 
 I'm never quite sure what to make of these stories. It's a pretty brave move to cast a boy as the main character in a genre that's predominantly oriented towards young girls & women, something that runs the risk of potentially alienating part of the demographic. This actually works here because this means that Black has more freedom to break free of other trends & habits of young adult urban fantasy. As far as this goes, the book is great. It's kind of refreshing to read about someone who isn't a young, spunky, headstrong girl fighting against the system. This is an intriguing world & for the most part Black does a decent job of exploring & explaining it. 
 Unfortunately there's some parts of it I just didn't get into as much as I would have wanted. The book just seemed to take a pretty long time getting to where it wanted to be & as a result one of the main themes of the book (the whodunit) fell to the back burner. This feels like it happened more as a way to shift gears for the third book in the series, but it still sort of threw me out of the story. There's a LOT going on in this second book & I have the feeling that even more will be happening in the next (& final) book, so I can't help but feel that this series would have been better served if it had an extra volume to help space things out. 
 Overall this was still a good read & if you liked the first one you're more than likely going to like this one as well. The only thing I'd warn people about is that unlike Black's Modern Fairy Tale series, this book is most decidedly not a standalone. If you haven't read the first book in the series you're pretty much going to be lost as far as plot goes. 
 3.9/5 
 (ARC provided by Simon & Schuster's Galley Grab)