I know I usually crack down hard on series and sequels, particularly when the first book is a perfectly good stand-alone, but this trilogy really had reason to be a trilogy. It has reason to keep going, even. My ONLY complaint is that Alex isn't as well developed a character as he was in the previous book--granted, this isn't his story, exactly, but there's less sense of his desperation here--he just seems stubborn, instead. 
 I hope it all works out for Miranda et al.