It really should have been two stars, but as usual, endings get me and this one was no different. 
 Ugh, I wanted so much to love this book. The first one was amazing, I've mentioned that. And going into the second one, I had such high hopes that it would be mega epic. But it wasn't, and that sucked. It was just too much for me; the names of the locations, the back and forth between this place and that place, the names of new faes ... Overloaded. I got so bored in the beginning - middle - and towards the end too (so basically in almost all parts?), but then ... well that twist at the end (just my kind of twist too, I'm such a sucker for twists like this) made me realize that yes, I'll still have to continue reading the series. Major angst to come, and I can't pass that up. 
 Overall, it was just too much politics ... too much war ... and too much traveling from one place to another ... and not enough of proper character interactions between McKenzie, Kyol and Aren. I was so looking forward to those. I was disappointed. And I found Paige super annoying.