An improvement from the first. The worldbuilding is richer, the plot thickens, and there's some cool stuff with "links" (which feels oddly like cognates from KOTLC). I still don't really understand how story strands work (and how they differ from other types of weaving), the Brac/Mor tension is quite annoying, and most of the characters aren't developed enough -- I couldn't remember who was who from the previous book, either. Tanwen's voice/narration is annoying. The switch between 1st and 3rd person is disorienting. Naith (a character I also do not remember) is a POV. So is Braith. And someone else is named Wylaith? What? Also, I just felt zero emotional connection to the characters. One of the most interesting is named Digwyn, but people call her Diggy, which I... really don't like. Another character is called Mor but is actually Mortimyr (what's wrong with spelling names normally?).

BUT. I did enjoy reading this. It was fun, and I hope the third is an improvement. Those are just my personal quibbles, and it was fun to list 'em all but please don't let that stop you from trying the series. If you don't like book one, you *might* like book two. If you liked the first, you'll like this better.