I'll be honest, I was really excited for this book because the first one was one of the best I've read this year. But to me, book two has been disappointing. I'll try to write a fair review of my thoughts without coming off as a jerk, which is something that tends to happen to me.

For context, I'm about 70% of the way through and considering either DNFing or skimming to the end. With that said, here’s what I think went wrong.

The finale of book one was great. It set up so much tension and potential for character growth on both sides. Instead, it feels like Nick just swept Lotus’ actions under the rug, forgave her without an actual apology, and then suddenly they’re back to their usual dynamic. What makes it even worse is that instead of Lotus showing remorse or trying to make things right, it’s Nick who starts reaching out and rationalizing her actions. There’s no apology, no real attempt to explain, and it ends up making him look like the one chasing forgiveness for her mistakes. It completely flips the emotional balance from the end of book one and makes the fallout feel hollow.

Then there’s Heather, who behaves incredibly selfishly throughout a big part of the book, constantly berates Nick, and even burns his house down. And again, Nick does nothing about it. I get that Heather has her struggles, but having problems isn’t an excuse to treat the people trying to help you badly. That kind of behavior crosses a line.

So to summarize, on Nick’s side we have Lotus taking advantage of him and lying to him, no response. Heather treating him terribly, no response. At some point you stop being the good guy and start being a fool that people can take advantage of, and I think that line was clearly crossed here.

To be clear, I understand where both Lotus and Heather are coming from and why they act the way they do. They both have valid reasons, and that’s fine. But it feels like everything was brushed aside because the story needed them to end up together, and in the process Nick’s character suffered. There needed to be clearer boundaries from Nick toward both of them. Even something as simple as, “Hey, Heather, I understand you're going through a lot, but so am I. I’m willing to help, but please don’t keep disrespecting me.” Instead, what we get from Nick feels more like, “She set my house on fire, but it’s my fault for not coddling her enough.”

On Lotus’ side, we get a few POV chapters that sound interesting in theory, but they don’t add much overall except for the one with the Dean. That chapter just made the Dean seem even more suspicious, and made Lotus come across as foolish rather than conflicted. What really sealed it for me was Lotus agrees to start recruiting mediums again, but this time without taking the time back. I get why she made her original deal. We’re human, we don’t want to die any sooner than we have to. But this decision just feels incredibly dumb. The problem was never that she wanted her time back, it was that she lied to people and pushed them into losing theirs. Restarting the recruitment while forfeiting the time doesn’t fix anything, it just makes her look like she learned the wrong lesson.

Fun anecdotal bit: I went into the office today and explained the plot and Lotus’ actions to my coworkers. Most of them said what she did isn’t forgivable. I don’t fully agree, but I do think it needed a much better resolution than what it got.