1.5, but I rounded up because I am nice and the concept is still brilliant. 
 Also, I can't believe the author rated her own book 5 stars... HA! Saaaad! 
 This book was, in my opinion, so much worse than the first. That's a shame, because this series has so much potential! I don't know how many books are in this series, but frankly I do not particularly care. In the face of the massive and probably unnecessary cliffhanger and the promise of some actual important action and advancement of the story, I will be reading the next book when it comes out. I won't be eagerly anticipating it or being in any hurry to get hold of the book when it does come out. 
 Everything that I wanted and was anticipating in this book, as I said in my last review fell completely flat and instead we are thrown into some completely unrelated and frankly almost completely boring storyline. 
 The concept was still good. The ideas of the different Londons is one thing that is making me carry on this series because I like it so much, actually. I am glad that we did not get a lot of view of Grey London and more of the magic Londons, but I am also disappointed that we did not get much of a view of Black London or even White London. 
 "But another London is coming back to life. The balance of magic is perilous, and for one city to flourish, another must fall..." 
 the blurb says. What the fuck? This was conveyed in tiny little three page chapters, about five times in the whole book. There is no way that there was enough of this to warrant being on the back cover, as we spent barely no time in White London and even less in Black London. I am severely disappointed about this as in my last review I said what I wanted to see was more of White London, and was excited for description of Black London! Well, wasn't I just disappointed by this!? 
 The entire book was actually focussed on a - what seemed to me - completely unnecessary and unimportant dramatic game thing, which seemed to serve no purpose but to make Lila and Kell meet in a dramatic way, introduce the other races and waste a load of time. This novel really just felt like a filler for the next one and I was just left wondering why? What was the point? Was it meant to advance my understanding of the characters? Because I understand them less after reading this book. 
 The characters. I see from some other reviewers who state that this is a 'character driven novel', but I don't like any of the characters that Schwab is meant to be advancing on. The only character I even liked was Alucard Emery, and he was not in the last book so he doesn't even count as one of the characters that Schwab is meant to be advancing the character of! Kell was still boring and I don't really feel anything about him. His added whinyness just made me feel even less for him, and the hint of potential darkness of character from him at the beginning of the book just fell flat, super quickly. Rhy seemed also more whiny and annoying and this seemed to me to be irritating and made him just seem ungrateful. The whole time he was getting angry at Kell, something along the lines of: 
 "First my body, and now my will?" 
 was just sooo boring to read. Like dude, calm down your angst! Kell saved his life... he wouldn't have any will if Kell had not saved his life, so what is the issue?! (view spoiler)[I was happy when I first realised that Holland was alive, but instead of focussing on more interesting and more important things in depth like the will binding and Holland in Black London, we are only given glimpses of this and then thrown back into a shitty and uninteresting storyline of fucking elemental games. (hide spoiler)] 
 Lila. Yeah, she has her own paragraph, because I'm so damn pissed. In the last book I thought of her as basically a definition of a 'strong female character', but with some extra childishness in that she felt in her bones that she was meant to be a pirate! I didn't like her much really. Now I actively hate her. The childishness I saw in her in the first book is amplified here, and her Mary-Sueness is also shown startlingly. Okay, so there are these competitors to these games - these games which are important, very grand, and an honour to partake in - and these people must be the best at their magic and have trained so hard to get where they are, no? But wait! Lila, who is a) from Grey London where there is no magic apparently b) has been learning magic for a maximum of four months and c) is (apparently) not stupid and has lived on the streets for so long so must have some common sense, waltzes in, takes this opportunity from someone and manages to almost get in to the last round! Please! Fuck off! The way she acted was childish and ridiculous and there is no way that it is plausible that she would get away with it ... even if this is just fantasy. Her childishness was so fucking annoying and I just thought that she need a slap round her stupid, smug face. Her obsession with knives is dumb too. She's just super dumb and if she does turn out to be a super special and predictable Antari, I forsee my family and I having another super fun football-with-a-book-session and then a hearty bonfire with marshmallows roasted by these very pages, much like I did to The Night Circus. 
 Things picked up towards the end, but I could feel the thinness of the book between my fingers and I just knew it wasn't going to end in a satisfactory way. It was like Schwab just stopped writing and was like 'yeah, this'll do'. The cliffhanger was rubbish and does not make me think I will just want for more. I finished the book and I just felt so mad! I am going to read the next book because the end of this book seems to give promise, but I just felt cheated! I'm just so disappointed and I really feel like I have wasted my money with this book, but I am obviously a minority here judging my many reviews.