I was impressed by how well Laini Taylor managed to connect Kora and Nova's story to that of the characters from the first book. At times, I almost found myself more interested in their part of the story which is such a difficult feat to pull off when you're introducing new characters after you've already formed attachments to older characters. The overall vibe of their chapters matched the tone of the first book much more than the other chapters did.

Even though the first book was slow to catch my interest, once it gripped me, it refused to let me go. However, the pacing in this book was kind of all over the place. Since the first one ended on a cliffhanger, I wanted this one to start with the fallout of what happened, but Taylor spent so much time giving us moments after moments of Lazlo and Sarai kissing and swooning that it became annoying. I found their romance to be passably interesting in the first book, because it served a purpose then, but here I was mostly bored by them. Other relationships were done well though. I would not have thought that Thyon would turn out to have the best character arc in the story, but I honestly grew to adore him. And out of the 3 teenage romances, his was the most interesting and most well-done.

MoN was quite action packed, but I think I still like Strange the Dreamer better because I thought it was tighter. This may have been a bit too neat in some ways and while I wish the author had made bolder decisions, I won't complain too much about my favourite characters

([Eril-Fane!)

getting a happy ending.

While this is closer to a 4-star book in my view, this duology sits so highly in my feelings that I'm rounding it up to 5 stars.