At first, I had this rated as four stars, but as I dwell on it, I realize that I didn't really like it enough for that. 
 Don't get me wrong, it was good. It's Shannon Hale, and her words are amazing and her characters are realistic and lovable, and she's, well, she's Shannon Hale. 
 For that alone, I could give this book five stars, but... that's a bad reason to give a book that many stars. 
 In all honesty, I'm uncertain why I didn't like it a whole, whole lot. It had everything. It had excitement (more so than in the last book!) It had intrigue, and it had Miri. For those of you who like such things, it had a bit of romance as well. So, it was a good book, but it felt to me like it was lacking something. 
 I'm just not sure what that something is. 
 It isn't action, cause this had that. It isn't intelligence, cause it had that too. 
 I think, it felt much more rushed than any of Shannon's other books. I would probably describe it as plot-driven, as opposed to character driven. When I think about it, this is a bit of a change, cause I think that her other stories were quite character driven and they really had room and time to grow. 
 This book didn't allow for as much growing. 
 Like I said, I liked it, it was good, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.