Ultimately a very satisfying book 2! There's progress with the murder threat, with romance, with ongoing relationships and new ones, and a bit more convergence data. I look forward to book 3. The plot is good, if a bit slow at first. I continue to be annoyed that the father wasn't dealt with ASAP, but that's just me. Sage is a whole different personality. If you enjoyed the first book, you'll very likely enjoy this one.

CW: past violence, on-page violence, on-page kidnapping and torture (not as gruesome as it could've been).

I'm not giving it a fifth star for several reasons, all stemming from one issue; this needed an edit to catch repetition, of usually needless description of feelings or conclusions. Chapter 5 is the worst for this failure, but there are many instances littered through the final chapters as well. Editing is hard, which is why a good editor is worth her weight in whatever commodity she values most. When you write a book, you are only providing part of a reader's experience. The book's appearance, and how well-edited it is, completes the whole, and when any part of those is missing, we notice. We may not all care, but we notice. I hope book 3 gets some edit-love. ( )

I definitely liked this one more than the first. The author seems to have a better grasp on the characters and the world they created which means we can skip most of the exposition and get down to some action. The only thing is that there's hardly any actual magic in this story, which is kind of a major plot point in this series, especially compared to the first book. You could get rid of the fact that half the characters have some ability and it would still be the same story. I think the author maybe handicapped themselves when they made most people's abilities elemental rather than just generic mage/witch abilities because we only see people use their magic in very specific situations. In this book's case, we really only see magic when Sage is trying to defend himself or the end when his grandmother uses her "earth" power to level some buildings - unless you count seeing the ghost of his father every once in a while, that's all the magic in the entire story. Besides that, I think it's an interesting world and look forward to the next book. ( )