This book is entirely saved by me being young enough to enjoy these main characters. It should also be studied in a uni course on "middle book syndrome". The ending lost me. Completely. I understand what it was trying to do but it was so overly dramatic and, to be honest, made worse by the villain of this book being Riadne and a dude who was comically bigoted towards Arlo. Speaking about Riadne. I couldn't take her seriously. She is an assortment of tropes - scorned lover, cruel mommy, "had to close off her heart after a bad ex"- that makes finding her threatening really difficult. Not to forget that her mesmer powers basically made her OP even though conveniently the two people who needed to be against her weren't affected by it. Lethe is fun but also felt utterly wasted. Arlo and Vehan are infuriatingly naive and I get it as an abuse victim but that doesn't make it less annoying at times. Nos is and will always be fun to read but I wish we had gotten more of her connecting the dots. Her knowledge seemed out of nowhere sometimes. Aurelian has my heart for being an edgy German boy.