This opens with a time skip, which was a bit jarring, but once I got my bearings it was enjoyable. It didn't quite reach the highs that the first book. Actually, I was bored throughout a lot of this book, and almost gave up on it, but it picked up near the end. Learning more about the sinking islands was fun and reminded me why I liked the first book so much. And in the end, I liked the ultimate resolution of the major characters. I enjoyed how it all wrapped up!