4.5 stars 
 Review: 
 Protagonist: Alex is back and this time she brings with her probably more snark, sass, and stubborn hot-headed statements. In this installment, a lot of Alex's character development is about reigning in her wild ways, at least a bit, and learning that her actions have true consequences. It was interesting to see how quickly Alex would go from pissed off to regretting it or realizing what the true meanings of her actions are. With this only being the second book in a five book, and two novella, series, don't expect huge revelations when it comes to her character, but the seeds are there. 
 Romance: Unlike the previous book in this series, this installment puts less of a focus on Alex's forbidden, and too-complicated-for-words, relationship with Aiden in favor of her budding romance with Seth. I'm not sure if it's because I know outcome, for the most part, of this love triangle, but I'm not feeling any of the angsty groan inducing things I usually feel toward at least one side of the love triangle. That being said, both love interests do screw-up and have their eye rolling moments in this book, but they're pretty quickly forgotten, 
 World-Building: Wow, the author uses this book to really drill into readers the complete and utter racism between Pures and Halfs in this world. In the previous book I knew things were strict, but I'm not kidding you if I could somehow jump into this world, about 80% of the Pure Council would "mysteriously" disappear overnight. It's freaking insane how they treat Halfs. I'm really interested to see how this is going to develop, especially given one of the romances for this book. As for those wondering if this book really does break from the Vampire Academy comparisons, it does to a point, there are still scenes and plot devices from the series used, but much less frequently and really only for the first half or so. I'm sure I could have found more if I really looked, or I wanted to, but well to be honest I didn't want to. 
 Predictability: For the most part, unlike the last book, this book was unpredictable. Sure a small thing here or there was easy to guess, and when certain things were put in motion it wasn't hard to see where things were going to go. The big stuff though, the twists meant to shock, amaze, and horrify the reader, those I never saw coming. There were parts of the book that more glided along without anything too predictable or surprising , but before too long the book will pick up in one way or another. 
 Ending: So when I got to what I thought was the end of this book, meaning with two and a half chapters left, I thought that this was going to be one of those books where the final climax was more about internal struggles, however I was so very, very wrong as the book came to a close. The final chapter was the only bit of an ending we got after the final confrontation, and that wasn't even much of one as the book pulled the reader into a devastating and shocking twisted cliffhanger. 
 Rating: 
 So I was very close to giving this book 5 full stars, but something held me back, I can't quite put my finger on why though, which pisses me off to no end. All I know is that for me, while this book is spectacular, it doesn't really feel like a 5 star book.