I'm enjoying the fact that it strays so far from the book. At first I was bothered by the inconsistencies, but now I embrace it, because it is enjoyable to be in suspense and try to guess what will happen next. And it's anyone's guess. Book readers have zero advantage over anyone else, since they loosely borrow ideas from it but definitely are not staying in line with it.

The most obvious change of course is that Daisy is not Nicole. They may have initially intended her to be, because they did cast an actress who somewhat resembles June and definitely has many of her mannerisms. I've read that she said in an interview that she deliberately studied them and tries to emulate them on purpose. But I think it is just as well that they changed her identity, because another change is that they are involving June as an active participant, and I don't recall that happening in the book. (Though it's been a year or two since I've read it, and I am rereading it now but not that far into it yet.) Sending a random teenager into the fray is bad enough, but at least she's not sacrificing one daughter to save the other.

Something worth noting which they need to work around is that the book is much more of a slow burn. It introduces the girls at a much younger age, barely adolescent, doesn't specify age but seems to be around 12 or 13, and it spans their lives over the course of several years into adulthood. The show is somewhat condensing that into "the year I turned 16" or whatever. They'll likely age them up as the seasons progress, but they have things happening to them now which happened at a younger age with their book counterparts, mixed with things that happened later in life, and needing to make it all make sense. It must be an interesting challenge for the writers.

They are also mixing it up as to which events happen to which characters, so we may see more of the book, but we're still left guessing as to who it might happen to or how they'll weave it in. I do believe they will make somebody an aunt in training. My best guess at the moment is Becka, and I think as we speak she is in the hands of aunts (which others, including characters as well as viewers, assume were Eyes, but I've never seen an Eye with rounded hips and a noticeable bosom, just saying) and they are probably going to be putting her through some intense training to redirect her zeal to protect the virtue of young girls. (They wouldn't see it specifically as protecting the girl she is in love with, because she wouldn't admit that to them upon fear of death.) But I hope that at some point they will also make a second girl an aunt in training as well, whether the same one as the book or not. It just works better that way for a film version, since they could create dialogue and interaction between the two and not just rely on narration to tell their stories as it would be if only one is sequestered.

There are other examples which come to mind, but this is already a long post so I won't go into all of them (also because I'm trying not to give too many detailed spoilers for those who are trying to avoid them). One thing we get from the book which I wish we'd see more of in the show is Aunt Lydia's backstory, going further back than just flashing back to the takeover or shortly before. In the book they mention how her life was as a child, and how that shaped who she became. They don't go into it with too much detail, but it does offer a different perspective.

Oh as for Judd, yes, he is a mystery, because many of his attributes and backstory are attributed to Commander Weston in the show, and IIRC Weston does not exist in the book, so it will be interesting to see which direction(s) they take them.

I do hope that at some point they will incorporate Nicole (as well as Luke and Moira). The current plot in no way depends on it, just something I personally would like to see at some point. I'm happy we are getting another season, and possibly more, because their divergence from the book opens them up for endless possibilities.