Overall I enjoyed the second installment of the Wilderwood series! It wrapped things up nicely and left me feeling mostly satisfied - the biggest issue I had with this book was the pacing. Some chapters felt action packed and had me hooked, and some were so slow I could barely stand it. 

<spoilers>Neve’s POV chapters were my favorite. I really enjoyed her personality and her constant warring with herself and trying to decide if her motives were good or “bad” and what that even meant in the end. These chapters were the hooks for me. 

On the other hand, Red’s chapters were the ones that felt so slow to me! I felt that the stakes for her part in the entire Heart Tree and Kings saga were not as clearly stated as Neve’s, and Red spent more time worrying about everyone else than doing anything out of her own want or will, it seemed. In the end, she *does* make some decisions for the greater good, but her showing her own agency was really rare. 

I also found the twist with Kayu really predictable and over way too soon. There were no consequences for her essentially being a double agent and almost getting Red killed? She just got to continue hanging out with the gang and then ends up being Queen????? This part of the plot was the most disappointing to me. Even if there are going to be more books in the future and we get to know more about her, I felt absolutely no intrigue where she was concerned. </spoilers>

This wasn’t a bad book in my opinion, and I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to, but there were just some parts I would have skipped entirely and wished had some additional angst to keep my interest.