This book was all right and enjoyable, but it was also very predictable. I could see who the antagonist was a mile away, and I felt the ending was kind of anticlimactic, since I expected what would probably happen anyway, but it also didn't go far enough. The climax could have been much more powerful and interesting if the author had just taken it farther. 
 I do like that Mary is biracial, and I found her shame of that fact interesting in the aspect that it made Mary much more real to me and added much needed depth to her character. 
 I'm unsure of how I feel about James Easton and the 'romance' between him and Mary. Since some chapters would be from Mary's point-of-view (obviously) than switch to James's. At times I found him to be a knockoff of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and other times I actually liked him, but he needed much more characterization than he was given. 
 I'm definitely interested in reading more in this series, but I hope Lee has made some improvements from the first book.