I'm glad I finished this book. 
 That's saying more than it may seem. I stopped reading this book twice, both times in the second chapter. That in itself isn't too strange for me. It happens; sometimes I just fancy another genre, sometimes I read a review for a new book that gets me truly excited. 
 With this book though... that wasn't it. The first half of this book is truly difficult to get through, or it was for me. Even after I picked it up a third time and was determined to get through it, I nearly put it down for good another one or two times. I didn't care for the story, I didn't care for *most* of the characters, and I didn't care for the style of writing. 
 But then, magically, things changed. I don't even know where exactly, though my kindle put it around the 55% mark, I started to actually get kind of hooked. I read it more consistently, and I read it whenever I had free moments. Those were the signs I was actually becoming engaged in the story and *some* of the characters. 
 Around the 70-80% mark, I was actually getting ready, preparing myself, to give this book a very grudging four stars. But it just doesn't land the ending. This is very much a setting up book, and honestly, the setting up took way too long. I could see myself reading, and enjoying, the next in the series, but I need a break, to be honest. A lot of the characters are not people who I'd care to meet, which I suppose makes it realistic, but also makes it really difficult to care about a lot of what was going on. 
 I think the reason I ended up enjoying the latter half is because plot lines start to connect and therefore enjoyable characters become intertwined with those that are less so. 
 I'm surprised this book has the strong ratings that it does, to be honest. I wonder if some of that is people looking back on the first book after reading the trilogy. I could see that being the case. For now though, I can only rate it as I've read it. 
 A decent book, but not one of my favorites.