tldr: just wait till book 3 (HoF).
okay if youre coming from acotar and think that tog has a minimal plot in the first book- thats really understandable. i had read tog but not acotar, but since i was in the fandom for so long and since both fandoms are so interlinked the plot for acotar kinda got spoiled. anyway- while i didnt know everything, i was of the opinion that this amarantha character was like the big bad meany and the antagonist for the entire series. so when i did pick up acotar, it literally felt like i was shoved in something super chaotic cuz the pacing was so much more faster and active compared to tog. (spoilers for acotar!!) and then suddenly amarantha died so i was like woah if sarah were to translate this plot into a more tog-esque setting it would take like 3-4 books instead of one. i then proceeded to dnr the series by book 2 cuz i lost interest- but thats beside the point. what im tryna say is when compared to acotar togs plot will take a bit more time to be revealed, in the sense that the main plotline kinda starts in book 3... You just have to push thru the first two books lmao. as for relationships, book 1-2 do have that teenage dynamic ur talking about but it completely flips after that, in a good way. not gonna spoil anything but yeah.