Oh! I actually liked this quite a bit more than the first book. I mean, I am all about court politics, so that's not particularly a surprise; but this was really unexpectedly charming. 
 It still suffers from the same flaws as book one--especially with regards to the ending. During both books I found myself 10 or so pages out from the end going "how are we possibly going to wrap this up in time?" Very rushed endings on both accounts. And disappointingly little development when it comes to some of the worldbuilding and magic. I feel like the latter especially just sort of got dumped into our laps with very little explanation--except that it was critical to the plot. 
 Though oh, I am going to swoon a little bit over Vidanric because hello. Even if parts of the romance were utterly predictable. 
 I think this is a series that mostly works for its intended audience. It's definitely a younger YA still, but it's one of those series that if you pick it up at the right time in your teen years I can see it being very formative and much beloved.