Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A Symphony of Echoes: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Two
    Unavailable
    A Symphony of Echoes: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Two
    Unavailable
    A Symphony of Echoes: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Two
    Ebook354 pages5 hours

    A Symphony of Echoes: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Two

    By Jodi Taylor

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea. In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary's series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, withess the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches. But they must also confront an enemy intent on destroying St Mary's - an enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself to do it.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAccent Press
    Release dateOct 22, 2013
    ISBN9781681468792
    Unavailable
    A Symphony of Echoes: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Two

    Related to A Symphony of Echoes

    Related ebooks

    Action & Adventure Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      Burton And Taylor Go To Oxford

      Jan 12, 2022

      In 1965, when I was in my final year at Oxford, reading English, news came through that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were coming to town. They were going to appear in an Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of Dr Faustus by Chr

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Escape Of Koravitch

      Sep 30, 2019

      The Escape Of Koravitch
      16 min read

    • Article

      A Haunting in Manhattan

      Oct 23, 2023

      A Haunting in Manhattan
      8 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Jun 16, 2022

      A genuine miracle occurred at the art opening of the Blinky 40th Anniversary Exhibition at California State University Northridge Gallery in Southern California on 2 February 2019. An artwork by Erika Ostrander of the “Shroud of Blinky” was found wee

      6 min read

    • Article

      Good Books Make Good Fuel

      Sep 21, 2022

      Is it time to burn my books? My wife has already told me she is getting rid of the lot the moment I go. So, given the cost-of-living crisis and the rocketing price of fuel, is this the year for me to clear the grate and set a match to all my treasure

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Death? I Can’t Wait For The Adventure!’ Most Haunted’s Yvette Fielding On Ghosts, Sceptics And The Afterlife

      Oct 4, 2022

      The First Lady of the Paranormal, also known as the Queen of the Night, is waiting for me at Crewe railway station in a bright red vintage Mini. I just about fold myself into the front seat. She cackles, performs a miraculous U-turn and puts her foot

      8 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Lion’s Share

      May 25, 2021

      The Lion’s Share
      4 min read

    • Article

      When Lizzie met Maggie

      Dec 13, 2023

      The Grim Reaper has been having a high old time of late. I've barely had a moment to keep up with my diary, I have been so busy writing letters of condolence, attending funerals and giving addresses at memorial services. I was especially saddened by

      3 min read

    • Article

      Leviathan

      Aug 10, 2022

      After we killed the passengers, we put the bodies in one of the low-pressure, unheated storage compartments. Some people had wanted to have some kind of solemn burial-in-space thing; that was too ghoulish for most of us, though. Mostly the ones we ki

      25 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Jun 22, 2023

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      7 min read

    • Article

      THE FIRST FIVE PAGES: KJ Maitland

      Apr 1, 2021

      Writing historical crime thrillers often feels like one of those crazy circus acts where you have to stand on the backs of two galloping horses, with one foot on each, trying to keep your balance. One of the horses is the historical facts, the other

      6 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR Bocks

      Aug 4, 2022

      ◻PLEASE find attached this trademark from a box of eggs, which appears to show a chicken lifting its leg to crack off an eggy one. Susan Butcher, Australia ◻FORMER Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for meeting an ex-KGB agent without h

      13 min read

    • Article

      “Really?”

      Jun 2, 2022

      “Really?”
      6 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 30, 2022

      I’m a single mother who struggles financially to get through each month. When my washing machine broke I had no funds to repair it, so I asked my neighbours if I could do my washing at their place. On a Wednesday afternoon my bell rang. At the door w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      Dani Filth

      Oct 14, 2021

      Kvlt purists might argue that Cradle of Filth aren’t really black metal, but Dani Filth doesn’t really care. After all, he’s played – and partied – with just about every major extreme metal band to come out of Europe since the early 90s, and seen his

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Paranormal Cold Case Investigating History’s Most Spine-chilling Encounters

      Jul 7, 2021

      I’m in prison. It’s a crisp, dark night, the stars twinkle above me in the West Country sky and I am standing in the courtyard of HMP Shepton Mallet, formerly the oldest working prison in the UK until it finally closed its doors in 2013. Its most fam

      2 min read

    • Article

      Above Santa Cruz

      Jul 2, 2019

      Above Santa Cruz
      5 min read

    • Article

      What Ray Charles Says

      Mar 1, 2024

      The nighttime is the right time to be with the one you love, says Ray,but according to Hamlet, it’s when “churchyards yawn and hell itselfbreathes out contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,”says Hamlet, “and do such bitter business as

      2 min read

    • Article

      My Day with Andy Warhol

      Jun 1, 2018

      My Day with Andy Warhol
      10 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Barry's Last Words

      May 31, 2023

      Barry's Last Words
      4 min read

    Reviews for A Symphony of Echoes

    4/5

    348 ratings32 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      What an imaginative story this second book in The Chronicles of St. Mary's series provided. It's part espionage, adventure, comedy, romance, tragedy and a bit of historic time travel. I can only imagine that the first in series was equally so. The pace was quick and there was never a dull moment. The heroine of the story, Madeleine Maxwell ("Max") is a spitfire with a clever wit and wildcat reflexes. She is highly respected but often getting herself and other team members into scrapes and binds of the most heroic order. The book starts off with a quick romp to Victorian England and ends with plans to attend the battle of Troy. In between, there are trips to the future and training field trips to the past. Our heroine is all business, yet deep down holds a brokenness which her Chief Farrell tries to reach. I certainly am not going to spoil that part for you. If you're looking for a humorous romp through historic moments by folks with an adventurous spirit, then this may just be the book for you. I am grateful to Night Shade Books and Goodreads First Reads for having provided a free copy of this book. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review - the words of which are mine alone.Synopsis (from book's back cover):Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea.In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary's series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, withess the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches.But they must also confront an enemy intent on destroying St Mary's - an enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself to do it.
    • 4/5
      Another fun adventure with the St.Mary's gang. I enjoyed the characters in this one, but their development felt stunted, I felt like things kept getting pushed aside because events were happening that took precedence, and it felt a little forced. Overall, this was fun, fast paced, and well told.
    • 5/5
      So fun to read!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this overall, but found it a bit uneven; there were parts that were really good, and parts that I didn't enjoy so much. Generally I preferred the bits that involved time travel (yes, I know I shouldn't call it that) to the present-day (in the book's timeline).
    • 3/5
      Not as good as the first one - narrative wasn't as tight.
    • 4/5
      This is the second book in the fascinating Chronicles of St. Mary's, an extremely entertaining time travel series. At the beginning of the book, Max, now a seasoned and trained Historian, manages to accidentally bring Jack the Ripper back from Victorian London, then goes back in time to Scotland where she needs to ensure the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to preserve history. One of the very best sections of the book involves a Dodo hunt, which is both amazing and hilarious.

      We see many of the characters we met in the first book. They are realistically portrayed and some of the situations where they are in peril seem believably resolved. Given this is a fantasy novel, I guess I'm not sure if realistic is the correct word. Max and Leon's relationship hits a snag in this book and I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

      Because there are several time jumps in this book, I was worried that it would seem like a book of short stories but the author has managed to keep everything tied together. I think my recommendation would be to expand a bit on only two of the subplots instead of four. Hopefully the next book in the series will be a little smoother in that respect. I gave this book an extra half star for the audio narration by Zara Ramm, who is the perfect voice of Max.
    • 5/5
      I flew through this St. Mary's followup. It starts with Max and Kal going to Victorian England to see Jack the Ripper, and as always, there are unexpected consequences that pull you in and hold on tight. Horror, humour, science fiction, supernatural entities and even a little romance thrown in for good measure. The St. Mary's Institute for Historical Research is full of characters can continue to surprise in unpredictable ways, getting into scrapes in the past, and the future, and uncovering mysteries and fixing the time line along the way. A fun and interesting read that keeps you turning pages to see what will happen next! I love this series!!
    • 4/5
      A good entry in what could be a very good series. Really fun characters with vast opportunities to dabble in history. Sorting our old England so that the right queen was beheaded was a challenge with a very creative solution.
    • 5/5
      action-adventure, time-travel, urban-fantasy, suspense Fast paced and fascinating! I had this in my TBR pile (for 2 years! ) and couldn't believe that I had not reviewed it. Then I realized that I had not even read it! Obviously I rectified that. I love the fast pace and intertwined subplots as well as the interesting characters. No spoilers, the publisher's blurb gives clues. Just suspend disbelief and enjoy! Zara Ramm provided excellent narration with feeling.
    • 3/5
      In this second novel of the Chronicles of St. Mary's series, Madeleine "Max" Maxwell is now in management. She and her team begin this novel on White Chapel in an attempt to identify Jack the Ripper. This time jaunt is followed by trips to Canterbury Cathedral to witness the assassination of Thomas Beckett and to Nineveh to search for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. If these trips which are rarely ever without problems is enough they also must deal with a time travelling villain who is trying to erase St. Mary's from history. This series has become a guilty pleasure. The novels are light reading and the reader has the opportunity to learn about various historical periods and events. If you are a fan of the television series, Timeless, you need to pick up this series.
    • 5/5
      Fabulous book! Love this series!
    • 4/5
      The second adventure of the intrepid time-traveling historians of St. Mary's opens with Madeleine "Max" Maxwell and her friend Kal in Victorian London looking for a glimpse of Jack the Ripper. They get a bit more than they bargained for, and when they bring a terrifying stowaway back with them to St. Mary's, their friends will have to use all their ingenuity to save their lives.While I still really enjoyed the read, the second book was not quite as fun as the first. I'm not sure if I knew more what to expect, or maybe I just read it too soon after Just One Damned Thing After Another. Still a fun read and I'll continue the series as I really enjoy the characters - Chief Farrell, Max and her brash ways, the indestructible Markham. Time spent with them is not wasted, just the way the plot veered from one direction to the other and I was a little dizzy keeping up annoyed me about halfway through.
    • 5/5
      Another fun instalment of The Chronicles of St Mary's, as good as the first in the series. In which other book would Jack the Ripper and Mary Queen of Scots feature? Great fun. Bring on book 3!
    • 4/5
      As I've said before, I'm not a time-travel fan, but this series is so fun. I love the characters, the plots, and the whole insuciance of this group of "historians" who magically zip through time fixing things that weren't quite right in history, or even go forward a bit to see how things might be. In this one the group goes looking for Jack the Ripper, witnesses the murder of Thomas a Becket, tries to save Do=Do birds from extinction, and makes sure a would be interloper doesn't screw up the succession to the british throne in the days of Mary Queen of Scots. Great fun in audio, and just what the doctor ordered as an antidote to an overdose of really heavy reading.
    • 4/5
      This wasn't quite as dazzlingly fun as the first book, but was still a good enjoyable romp. I found some of the characters' emotional reactions to be overwrought, and some people's motivations were less than clear.... but the book is funny, engaging, lighthearted, and thoroughly enjoyable. I hope the rest of the series stays this good!
    • 3/5
      I liked Symphony of Echoes, book 2 in the time travel series by Jodi Taylor, but perhaps not as much as the first one. There's still interesting assignments to various places in the past. This time, our historians brush up against Jack the Ripper (a very strange version here), Dodos, Thomas Beckett, and by far the most interesting - Mary Stuart of Scotland. What I didn't enjoy quite as much was the action involving the future St. Mary's Institute and the troubled relationship between Max and Leon, our romantic leads. In fact, I started to find Dr. Maxwell irritating a couple of times. Still, the writing is generally good and witty so I'll have a read of the next book in line. One note, it might be better to read these books closer together because the story lines do carry on and I'd forgotten some of the details of book 1 in the intervening year before I picked up book 2.
    • 5/5
      ~~~~4.5 Stars~~~~

      This is the second book in the series and in my opinion is just as good as the first! They "are not time-travelers! they are historians. They investigate major historical events in contemporary time".
      and what a job they do.
      In this book we cross paths with Jack the Ripper, travel to the future, find out who's really helping the very dislikeable Ronan, witness a famous brutal murder, set a salacious tryst back on track and find out the next (absolutely monumental) assignment. Most of the characters are so loveable you can't help but feel/root for them, even the bad guys elicit emotions befitting their character. This installment is chock full of History, as any good "non time-travel" time-travel book should be.
      I'm happily off to book #3
    • 5/5
      Just as good as the first one, with a little romance thrown in. This series is perfect summer reading!
    • 4/5
      The second installment in Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of St. Mary's series. We follow Madeline "Max" Maxwell and her colleagues of that most unique of History Departments as they travel back in time to investigate questions of interest. These are not the doddering dusty academics of literary stereotype. They have a seat in the cathedral for the murder of Thomas Becket and are chased through the murky alleys of London by Jack the Ripper. Even more intriguing, the survival of St. Mary's itself is endangered by a mysterious group of other time traveling historians. Much is riding on our team of intrepid scholars.Even this fantasy avoiding reader has been drawn in and enchanted by this series. Witty and amusing (Dodos!), it is also packed with action with an occasional bit of sex tossed in. Don't read the series out of order, however. There is a flow from one volume to the next with lots delicious clues dropped along the way.
    • 4/5
      What makes these books so much fun for me is the descriptions of history. When Max and team go to Canterbury, Taylor's writing really makes the reader understand what citizens of that time experienced.That Dr. Max is as flawed as any of us and still strives for triumphal completion of her missions makes me love her all the more. Even though she does tend to go over the top when she is, shall we say, more than a bit peeved.A Symphony of Echoes does not stand alone, there is no "closure" so to speak on the big issue haunting St. Mary's. What will book #3 bring me, aside from the trip to Troy mentioned in the last line of book #2?
    • 3/5
      Even faster-paced than the first one, if possible. The world-building is opening up all kinds of new possibilities, and Maxwell remains awesome (and scary).
    • 4/5
      I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Just One Damned Thing After Another when I read it several weeks ago; I generally feel pretty 'meh' about time travel and usually pass it by. But I was swayed by the academic bent of the time travel and the humor and liked it so much I pretty much immediately ordered A Symphony of Echoes. #2 was fun; fun enough that as I write this my head is throbbing and my neck is stiff, because I spent all afternoon with my ass on the couch and my head in this book. But what was a fresh and novel idea in one book can often stale quickly in the second, and I felt some of that here. I loved reading about the history hops, and even the melodrama between Max and Leon wasn't bad, but I'm tired of the arch villain and the idea that these guys can't ever complete a jump without something catastrophic happening is fast approaching a stretching of disbelief I'm not sure I can pull off. And I have no idea what she was doing with the whole Jack the Ripper thing, but it felt gratuitous. The dodos were fun, but ultimately fleeting (the scene, not the dodos). Definitely not Pickwick quality. I'm not against reading the third one (although I'm lukewarm about Troy), but I'm not going to rush out and order it. I'll wait until I feel like stepping back into St. Mary's again and go from there.
    • 5/5
      At the end of the first book, our band of time travelling historians (just do not call them in such way when you see them) had found a previously unknown Shakespeare play (well, found may not be the correct word but someone did stay with Shakespeare while he wrote the thing and then it was discovered so let's call it that). And the main suspect is the splinter group led by Ronan of course - the historians that rebelled, stole a few pods and are now being chased across history in an attempt to stop them from ending the world.Welcome back to St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research - the place where historians investigate major historical events in contemporary time. And they never call it time travel - that's unprofessional after all. The play they found would have been a way to finance the institute for a very long time - except there is a small problem with it - it is a play about Mary Stuart but somehow at the end of it the wrong queen got executed. So either someone knew where it was buried and changed the end before the discovery or history had been a bit messed up. Or, because it is St Mary's after all, it probably is both. But before they have a chance to investigate, Max and the rest of the historians, have a few small and easy assignments to do. Which of course is the easiest way to put everyone in mortal danger - a lovely stroll to check on Jack the Ripper ends up with discovering the truth about him but it also almost kills Max and Kalinda, the search for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is a bit more successful when they realize that noone had seen them because they are in the wrong place (but of course go wrong and instead of seeing them in a nice and peaceful time, Max and Peterson end up there just in time to witness the assassination of Sennacherib (yep, wrong kingdom - because the gardens were not in Babylon after all) and Farrell being abducted to a future St Mary causes even more havoc (but it also ends up containing one of the calmest episodes for the ragtag team - the capture of a few dodos before they manage to get disappear from the face of Earth). And when all was set and done, it was time to deal with the main problem - that play. So off to Tudor times everyone goes - and things go well enough - for St Mary's that is. Taylor knows her history and uses it to he advantage - I did not know that there is any question about the Babylon gardens being in Nineveh but a quick check proved that to be a viable theory. But she manages to connect the real history with her inventions to create a narrative that might have been. Of course, as with the first book, it is not just a time travel story - there is a love story (if you do not feel like you want to smack Max on the head, I'd been surprised), the Ronan team is still in play (and because of the story, he is untouchable if discovered early in his criminal career), more people die (which is unexpected) and St Mary's is a disaster magnet... as always. I really enjoy this series - it is light and airy (but that does not mean that there is no gore and violence) and entertaining. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I had a hard time rating this one, I loved it but it has some slight problems that take it from being a perfect five. I would say its more of a four out of five. My main complaint is that it jumps around a lot and had me confused at times -- but hey that often happens when it comes to time travel books. This one takes a bit of a dark turn, but at least there are some brilliant moments of humour that offset the darkness. I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about the background of some of the secondary characters and it was very fast paced. I also love the idea of going back in time and being able to witness memorable events and see historical figures in all of their humanity. Ok, I could do without the reality of the smells, lack of hygiene and misogynistic attitudes of course. The highlight of this series is of course the witty dialogue and delightfully unique characters, which make you care less about some of the plot holes that happen when dealing with time travel (oops sorry, should not use the phrase time travel, Max would be so disappointed with me.Favourite Quotes/Passages“Dr Maxwell. Why are you wearing a red snake in my office?’ ‘Sorry, sir. Whose office should I be wearing it in?”"In this century. as in any other, men wore the comfortable, practical stuff, and the women wandered round expiring underneath over-decorated tea-cosies and with inadequate footwear.""I really wasn't looking forward to this, but you can't condemn someone to death and then disown the consequences."
    • 5/5
      Once again the intrepid historians of St Mary's travel through time, encountering Jack the Ripper, meeting Mary Stuart, witnessing the assassination of Sennacherib, and rescuing some dodos – it's all in a day's work. But they also have to deal with a traitor in their midst who threatens history's timeline, not to mention the lives of everyone at St Mary's.This volume continues the overarching plot arc of a member of St Mary's trying to change history, whom we encountered in Just One Damned Thing after Another, and it certainly raises the stakes, both professionally and personally, for our favourite historian and narrator of the series, Dr Maxwell.I love this series and Jodi Taylor's well-drafted and engaging, not to mention highly idiosyncratic, characters are worthy companions to spend one's precious time with. The historical locations are well chosen and researched, and not always what one would expect, and the author manages to convey a distinct atmosphere that transports the reader effortlessly to the distant (and not so distant) past. Though individual plot points may not always be entirely convincing, she knows ho to increase the tension and effortlessly blends the light with the dark, the humour with the tragedy.
    • 4/5
      This was another fun adventure in the exciting time-travel world of St. Mary's! The pacing felt a little odd in the latter half, but it was still a good story. I was glad to see all my favorite characters again!
    • 5/5
      In this second book of the series, the historians of St. Mary's must travel back in time to investigate Jack the Ripper and Mary, Queen of Scots. This book also continues the plotline of renegade historian who seems to travel around the timeline for personal gain and revenge. The characters in this book are zany and outrageous which makes this book fun to read.
    • 4/5
      Still quite enjoyable and fast-paced, but the author's tendency toward Ominous Foreshadowing is irritating.
    • 4/5
      Look like I will be filling in between (meaning more of these than the nonfiction {wink wink nudge nudge}) my more rigorous readings/reviews with more of this series. Engaging. Witty. Examples of:‘Dr. Maxwell. Why are you wearing a red snake [made from red stocking] in my office?’‘Sorry sir. Whose office should I be wearing it in?’And“In the Middle Ages, the Church was the most powerful institution in the western world. In England, the struggle between church and kings would take centuries to resolve. Interestingly, in the end, neither institution came out on top. Today, each is as powerless as the other. As people power emerged, we invented politicians. We’re not bright.”And a resonator, with me...:[Max, to a therapist] You make your living by restoring people to what you consider to be normal behaviour, an occupation I consider to be irrelevant at best and dangerous at worst. Naturally, I’m far to polite to say so and was simply attempting to convey my - lack of faith - in your profession without hurting your feelings.And a bit of education...while in the Elizabethan [and Mary Stuart] period, the time-traveling historian team “dined snugly on boiled fowl, a really good broth, roasted beef and frumenty. Look it up.” ... I did. Insufficient data to confirm a hypothesis about the format, so ... gosh it all... I guess I’ll have to keep reading??? Particularly as there is a loose end that is very loose and unsatisfying you unresolved. Quite fun.
    • 4/5
      This was a bit less vibrant and more rushed than the first book, though there were still a few fleshed out and engaging parts. (I greatly enjoyed the dodo bit.) So much of the book seemed more tell than show, not as detailed of a story as the first book. The few bits (aside from the dodos) that were well-described were not ideal for me. Though nicely fleshed out, the Jack the Ripper section took a hard turn into supernatural that was never addressed or explained. I can science time travel into reasonableness but there is no reasoning with what that was. The detail given to Max and Leon’s relationship made me feel like the time travel bits were filler material and the real plot was the immature (working its way to toxic) relationship between the two. Which is not what I’m here for. Especially her immature reaction to a hurtful comment. That goes beyond “flawed hero” and into restraining order territory. But then if they were two reasonably mature human beings with adult relationship skills, a good third of the book would be gone and can’t have that.The lack of detail made the runaway director plot in the middle seem like it was solved too quickly/easily. It just all felt too rushed to have the gravity the characters seemed to give it. Also, such huge amounts of damage were done from an hour-long acquaintance? It just didn’t balance well for me. The writing still had the same humor as the first, which I enjoyed, but there seemed to be a bit less of it. Perhaps if I hadn’t adored the first book so much, I wouldn’t be so let down by this one and would have enjoyed it more. I’m sure how wrapped up I got in the first one has caused me to be a bit more critical of this one when it didn’t hit the same marks. I’ll give the third book a shot to see if we can get back near the awesomeness of book one, but I’ll read something else first.