Oh boy howdy, I think I'm doing something wrong here. 
 Listen, I will admit that I'm in a major reading slump right now. This is the third book in a row I've picked up and not clicked with since I finished Strange the Dreamer. Is Laini Taylor responsible for my slump? Probably. But also it's probably that I've been replaying a lot of Dragon Age Inquisition. 
 I DIGRESS. The point is that I'm fairly certain my own crummy headspace is at least partially responsible for the overwhelming apathy I felt reading this book. Which really bums me out because I really liked the first book in this series. But as I sort of worried in my review of that book--what happens to this series without the hook of identity? 
 Sadly, the answer seems to be: not much. Maybe I was distracted by my enjoyment of guessing the identity of the assassin and the prince last time, but the writing felt really weak and clunky. There's some really generic worldbuilding and ostensibly magic or something, but it's all really nebulous and didn't work for me. 
 And I could NOT get reconnected to the characters. I identified with Lia much more when she was playing tavern-maid last book, trying to escape a life she never asked for. She tries so hard to be this scheming and tough princess--which, don't get me wrong, is usually my jam--but it just fell really flat. This is my buggy headspace talking probably though. 
 What it boils down to though is I just didn't care. About anyone or anything. There was no emotional connection and it hasn't even been that long since I read book one. I'm mostly just disappointed in myself, to be honest. I wanted to like this--I wanted to LOVE this series after how much I'd enjoyed book one. But I just didn't. I'm not even sure I want to finish the series at this point. Which is just a damned shame.