I am absolutely convinced that I would have loved this book much more if I had read it with my eyes. I've found that there are certain books that just sweep me away when I eye-read and I can't put them down, but which feel incredibly slow-paced and bogged down with details that go in one ear and out the other when I ear-read, and I think this is one of them. I still plan on listening to the (even longer 🙈) finale, but I'm going to try to more mindfully read along with my eyes as well so I lose fewer of the details.

I am not sure how much of my sense of pacing issues is an artifact of the aforementioned problem or real, but it felt like the middle 50% of the book really dragged. It felt like a lot of the earlier part of the book was spent on moving chess pieces into place and expounding on the schemes that could have been tightened up. That said though, the last 25% was a showstopper. This author can really write a grand finale action sequence. When things FINALLY were all coming together, I definitely was 100% engaged and feeling that "can't stop listening" feeling. I also really appreciated the fact that the epilogue to this one was brief rather than dropping a TON of new plot hooks into it like the first book. Going to take a breather and read something else and then dive into the final book.