Enjoyable second part of the series: Our heroes encounter adversity and have to make bad choices and live with their decisions. Less comfort read than the first part, different and good. The ending is extremely stupid and sets up the exceedingly stupid cause for the drama causing part three and four.

Everybody is extremely dramatic in this book. Very YA. But it stood up to a re-read surprisingly well: Young boy in faux-Japan gets his family murdered, is adopted into a clan and things escalate from there. Oh, and it turns out he's not only adopted by the rightful leader of the clan, he's also born to a long line of secret assassins and has lots of magical gifts. And everybody wants a piece of them.

Concluding the series, we get the "15 years later" book we never wanted. Things fall apart. Then they fall apart some more. There's a lot of death to go around, much of it by backstabbing.

As set up by the previous book, everybody is being stupid and then there is a lot of battling and death. Not a fan.