I can't put my finger on why I enjoyed Claimed By Shadow more than Touch the Dark, but I did, even with the pointless trip to Faerie. 
 I have no sympathy for Mircea. Hear that? ZERO sympathy. He was the one that had the geis placed on Cassie in the first place, so when her little trips back to the past (to save his ass, mind you) place another layer over him that apparently leaves him in agony because it has worked its way through his system for over a hundred years, all I do is laugh and say "serves you right". 
 Cassie/Pritkin... no, just, uh uh. He's an annoying flea that needs to be squashed. When I was a kid, I never believed that 'boys torture girls because they like them' crap, and as a teen and adult, I don't believe in the 'two people are so awful to each other because they're secretly attracted to one another' tripe either (despite popular belief that it is a thing, if all the fan fiction written about it is any indication). Cassie and Pritkin are not lusting after each other, she thinks he's a dick and he finds her insufferable. This is a terrible foundation for the ship to be built upon. 
 Tomas is still alive... yeah, I thought he was dead. He was one of the characters I did like, which is why his face-heel-turn in TTD pissed me off, just because he was possible competition for Mircea's pursuit of Cassie. However, in a twist I did not see coming, Tomas was the one who took Cassie's virginity in order to solidify her role of Pythia and remove the geis (did the former, not the latter). I was shocked, because I expected Cassie would stay all sweet and virginal for Mircea, the obvious 'literary hero'. Bravo, Ms. Chance, bravo. 
 I don't know if the way the TTD and CBS abruptly end continues in the series, but I don't like it. I get that endings are hard, but the whole "Cassie went into the past and the last sentence is her shifting back to the present" just bugs me. Maybe I like the "small taste of what's to come" in endings, a hint to the plot of the next book or a decent wrap up the current book. Here it seems to cut off and you wonder if a page is missing.