I do not understand the logic of spending the whole first book building up how strong and capable your female protagonist is then turning her into a near-useless damsel for the majority of the second. Like...why? Even the first series's protagonist actually got shit done herself, and she wasn't even a trained fighter! I just don't get it. Other than that, the pacing here was good—as seems to be a trend with this author, the latter half was much better than the former. Passable, overall.