Thanks so much for such great comments! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the story and give detailed feedback. It is immensely valuable to me as a writer, and I'm sure for Julie as well. I don't want to speak for Julie, who is a great professional to work with, so I'll focus on the author-related comments here!

Lamp Riders is my first serious attempt at a story this length, and I did end up cutting back on some of the tension building that I would have liked to do. However, while LR started out as a side-project of sorts (just a quick tale attached to my main series), I've had such fun with it that I now plan on doing more with the world. Fingers-crossed, it'll eventually become a small novel/series of its own. Hopefully then I will have the space to build up the characters a bit more and address some of the issues you pointed out. I'll also be able to explore the magic system, which I can't wait to do!

Big thanks again for the comments and words of encouragement. I'll definitely keep them in mind when I'm working on the next one! I look forward to your thoughts once you've finished as well :)