4.5 rounded up

I understand completely why some people didn't like this one, as it is slower and much more grim than the first one regarding the psyche of Talia and her journey with her Gift. And yes, at times, I was frustrated as well with the "won't you just communicate, ffs", though I know I'm not as frustrated as a lot of other reader with those things.

Now, I loved this book more than the previous one. One of the reasons why is maybe because of the deep understanding Kris and Talia reach, even though both of them have doubts throughout. One part specically, where Kris finally realize and understand what as been going on in Talia's mind and inner world made me cry, I guess because I long for this king of understanding for myself.

I also liked the whole winter stuff, the snowstorm and how high the stakes were because of it. Even though I live in a very snowy place with all kind of literature about the hard environment and such, I never read or heard about this kind of stories before, or not with the amount of urgency and desperation associated to it. It made the danger of snowstorm feel real for me, in a part of the world where we laugh at people who live just a little more to the South because they freak out at 1 feet of snow.

Another reason I liked this book more than the last was how the pace was a little bit slower. The first book was sometimes too fast for me. Sure, you didn't have time to get bored, but I felt like the pace was a bit rushed and that too much was happening. We still have a little bit of that in this one, now and then, but I feel like Lackey started being more confident in her story to deliver enough so that she didn't have to pack it with one event after another.

That being said, it does have the middle book syndrome, has it starts and ends with not that much at stakes in the grander scheme of things. But hey, every book doesn't have to be high stakes and action packed (though it does have stakes and actions quite enough) to be good.