Review: Better than the first!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2013
This book was even better than the first!  The story kept me captivated and at the edge of my seat the entire time. Lyra finds herself in a big predicament, having to not only learn important lessons about magic, but also has to succeed at her new quests. She struggles with trusting anyone, not knowing who is friend or enemy, some who seem to be friends are enemies others who appear violent turn out to be friend. She has to struggle through her quest all alone, with the sole purpose of saving her love Cullen's live. So the stakes are high, if she fails not only can she loose her own life but also the life of the one she holds most dear. These stakes along with constantly being attacked and pursued by the enemy both in the real world and in the magical world, make this a compelling book to read. The pace of the book was good throughout, although I did spot some grammatical failures here and there, but easy enough to skip over without deterring from the story. The story reached a climax towards the end, however the ending felt a bit flat for me, in that it did not feel as rewarding as I would have liked. The one problem that I have with this story is that the use of magic seems to come at little cost, and so Lyra seems to be able to easy learn things, which is explained by her heritage. This is counterintuitive to human experience where everything we learn comes through repetition, Lyra usually gets everything right within one or two tries, except power balls which is her own weakness.  The other thing about the story that irked me a bit, was that the timing was off in that she traveled the entire length of the dark realm in a few hours. This makes the world they are in appear really small and insignificant. It ending would have been more rewarding, if Lyra had to truly suffer to getting and returning from her quest objective as opposed to zipping in and out. Regardless of these disappointments, I still enjoyed reading the book and finished it in three evenings.As for family friendliness, this still rates a 1 out of 5 because of mature scenes. This fantasy romance novel is written for a mature audience and is definitely R rated, in that I would not allow anyone under the age of 18 to read it. This is the same comment for her previous novel, so at least the author has staid true to her audience.