Okay, first let me say the ending was the most BS drama-grab I've ever seen. This is getting to the point of a third-rate soap opera, and not in a good way. Instead of being a cliffhanger that has me on the edge of my seat for the next one, it's turned me off the series. This has got to be the most failed ending I've ever read. 
 Okay, ending-rant over. Now for the other stuff. 
 This book was filled to the brim with so much petty drama, I halfway regret anything nice I said about 
 Paper Princess 
 . Some of the bullying shit the characters did was so out there and unrealistic, I felt like the novel was pitched to adult writers by a twelve year old girl who had been homeschooled by her bullied-back-in-the-day mother. And then the characters. Oh, the characters. I mentioned in a reading update that they were all either nonfunctional or vindictive. And really, that's how it was. Everyone was broken and with something shoved too far up their butts to try to communicate with anyone, or figure themselves out. Everyone needs a shrink, and I'm surprised the family doesn't have one with their money that's as plentiful as their problems. And the only people who were truly active in the book were out to be the biggest bitches they could possibly be, all for the sake of some semblance of a plot, I guess. And they were just so extra and over-the-top that were it not for my positive reaction toward the first book I would have dropped this one right off the bat. 
 Now for stuff I would have nitpicked earlier had the book not tried to ruin itself with the aforementioned stupidity. 
 This book splits the point of view this time between Ella and Reed, which I do believe is a sound choice for the storyline this book chose to follow. I liked that it skipped the mundane and gave credit to the reader for being able to pick up pieces of what happened to Ella or Reed while we were in the other's mind. I hadn't mentioned it in my previous review (I should have; I was just so distracted by my surprise enjoyment) but the books have a bad habit of telling rather than showing. It's nice that there's a little more trust between author and readers now. However, I do want to say that I kind of wish Reed's POV wasn't in first person. His voice felt very feminine (hard to help with authors of the opposite sex, I know) and very similar to Ella's. If you flipped through the book and started reading a random paragraph that didn't give away who the character was, you might be a bit hard-pressed to guess whose POV it is. It's not the most major flaw in the world, but it's one that irks me a bit. 
 Another nitpicky thing I have is that we weren't introduced to any new characters, really. I mean sure, you have the one-off plot device cutouts that pop up here and there, but we don't get anything to really shake it up. It's just the same old people being more horrible versions of themselves for whatever reason at that point in the plotline. And that bored me. (*Warning: Spoilers for ending of Paper Princess*) Am I really supposed to believe that Ella skipping town for a hot minute completely destroys everyone in a fifteen mile radius? I mean, I get that she has quite the influence on the Royals, who rule the school and yadayada, but come on. Ella's not a Mary-Sue, but she does like to dip her toes into the territory. Honestly, I feel like a love triangle would have worked better at this point. But that's probably just me. 
 Maybe I'm just a bit peeved. I thought I found a surprise example of books with premises I shouldn't be drawn to working out to be extremely enjoyable experiences. But this book was such a letdown from what I expected from the first. I don't know that I'll continue the series, to be honest. This book just has me shaking my head.