I don't think I would have liked this book so much if I hadn't read the first one. The author did all the characterisation heavy lifting in the first book and she focuses more on the plot in this one. It actually made me really angry and I credit the story for doing that because I'm usually a pretty impartial reader in terms of not thinking about the characters outside of actually reading about them and I watch as an observer. However this time I felt myself getting pulled in and thinking that how dare this woman mess with this family like this. I enjoyed all the characters, even Livia, because she was really fun to hate, but at least I was feeling emotions relating to her.

I'm not going to spoil it but I really loved it and toyed with giving it 5 stars. I didn't do that in the end because there were a few plot points that were blatantly ridiculous, however much I might have still enjoyed them. Also the ending, while I understand it was trying to pull you into the third book, it was frustrating and annoying.

I am looking forward to reading the third book in this series.