It was OK. Yep, that's an understatement. I had high hopes for the sequel and final book. 
 - Let me tell you that the best thing about this book was Irsa and Rahim's storyline. And because I started liking Irsa's character, I started realizing that Sharzad was BEAUTIFUL and therefore NOT RUDE AT ALL. I became annoyed by her. I don't know why and when that happened, but sometimes she seemed like a fine heroine and sometimes I was thinking how can someone over-react so much. And make me cringe. I even liked Yasmine here! 
 - The writing didn't make happy either. I thought it was too redundant, and hear me out, I'm the kind of person that follow's Edward Said's style of writing. But it was too much. 
 - How the plot unfolds seems extremely rushed and forced, like if Renee Ahdieh had a writing block and was pushing to publish the last book and be done with the duology. Sometimes I wondered if there was a plot at all and then when there was a clear goal and plot (the war, the book, Sharzad being at peril as always) it unfolded much too easily. Nothing took me by surprise. (view spoiler)[ Except Rahim dying, because he was my favorite character and I was angry, but I should have seen his death from afar because it was obvious he was the only one who had to die. And then Khalid revived -.- and of course, that was predictable as everything else (hide spoiler)] 
 - The ending was bleak. (view spoiler)[ A boring happy ending, may I say, I'VE READ THAT ENDING A THOUSAND TIMES! You know, when the couple is coddling their child and all that jazz. BORING, give me something different (hide spoiler)] 
 In summary, I'm dissatisfied, to say the least, however, I think some people (most of the reviews I've read seem to agree on) will like it, not as much as the first, but to some extent.