I ended up enjoying this book more than I had enjoyed the first. It may have been partially due to the fact that I now knew the characters a little, and had a better grasp in what was going on (I. E. There was an actual, definable enemy/seeming cause of all the issues, rather than a vague nothingness).. But overall I entered this book knowing the characters and their plight only as much as I would hope to have known them a third of the way through the first book.
The premise was again intriguing, and I found that the author seemed to have managed to find the same voice throughout (which was a solid improvement from the first book!)... And overall, the pace felt more "natural" in this one, almost like the timeline made more sense...
I still found there were many times where the story seemed to "jump", or skip some key information. I also unfortunately found the writing still to be lacking in descriptiveness, although it was very much improved from the first book in many ways. I still found myself confused as to where the story was headed sometimes, as there was still not (until a good ways through) a clear "antagonist".
I continued reading because I had faith that the story would "grow"... Please read reviews of the 3rd book as well.
In the end, I think the story has a lot of potential, and a strong premise. It just lacked some strength in the areas mentioned above.