I LOVE this series. I didn't like this first book as much as the rest, but once you get started you won't want to stop til you've read them all. Fast and fun. I loved the characters- pretty much all of them... There are some disjointed sections, but they aren't enough to deter from reading ALL of the series. If you go to the author's website you can read small novellas for free that go between some of the main books. Very cool.