As a story by itself I quite liked it. But as a sequel to O&C it was disappointing, and sucked out a lot of the magic from the first book. It really did feel like there was too much coincidence with how the characters kept on meeting up, and it didn't have the mystery or wonder about what was happening/what happened like O&C did. It did make me appreciate O&C more, however. This isn't a bad book but, as I said, just didn't have the magic of the first.