I LOVED seeing the side characters more (Dawes and Turner, my loves). An element of the quest allows us to know more about them, and it was so refreshing to have characters other than Alex developed!! I noticed a slight increase in dialogue which I’m happy about since I love dialogue-driven books. Apart from a few odd sentences in the beginning, I still love the writing and the atmosphere. The research, teamwork and rituals to save Darlington were fascinating, even if the book relied too much on convenience.

The author is very knowledgeable about Yale and it shows, but the Dark Academia vibe is almost completely gone, it’s more of an urban fantasy now. There’s nothing wrong with it (I love the genre), but it’s not what I expected of the series. The secret societies are also less present. With that in mind, I’ll be adjusting my expectations for the third book. While I enjoyed the quest, the payoff was SO anticlimactic that I felt robbed. I knew I smelled romance brewing in NH, I can't go into details without spoilers but…I don’t want it 😭(I know it’ll still be there though so oh well) I also feel like the murder mystery was randomly thrown in? It wasn’t as compelling as in NH (and I found it a bit boring in NH) because it wasn't the main plot.

I still don’t feel like Alex, and since the series is mostly from pov I have to say that it’s an exploit I still want to read the 3rd book, so hats off to Ms Bardugo!!