At times Yarros really bogs you down with unnecessary details that don't really add anything useful or meaningful to the story or narrative. Just a quagmire of boring military tactical conversations between multiple characters that could have been summarised into something more concise and interesting. Said multiple characters feel stagnant, we don't get any more details about most of them in this book and so these people who are meant to be Violet's best friends feel two dimensional at best, inconsequential at worst. The pacing of the story was weird, sometimes going on and on about insignificant details and then suddenly skipping ahead. First 30 chapters felt like a chore to read. The ending was...anticlimactic? Weird? Stupid? I don't know. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Don't ask me why, probably because of Xaden's abs. 
I feel that 3.25 stars is actually pretty generous of me though.