For whatever reason this took me a year to read. I kept meaning to read it but my mind would wander barely four pages in and then I wouldn't pick it up for a week. So I'd start over and the same thing happened. I only started to force myself to keep going when the movie came out, thinking it may be up for awards and I wanted to finish the book before I see the film. But only when it became a possible plot point on Scandal did I decide I was going to Really Read and Finally Finish this book. 
 But once I got to Book Two, I read the rest in 2 sittings. The story finally took off and the reveal wasn't surprising so much as compelling. Thus I give it a 2 star beginning, 4 star back half, 3 star book.