Well, this succeeded in making me like Vika better, if only because Pasha and Nikolai were kind of ruined as characters for most of the book. I don't mind Nikolai having issues with darkness, but it felt forced. It did not feel true to his own emotions, and it led to a deus ex machina of an ending. And yet, I still loved Skye's writing. Even as parts of the plot felt contrived and hard for me to deal with, the world created and the language continued to be absolutely lovely. I wish this had lived up to the first one for me, but I am excited to see what else we get out of Skye as an author.