I genuinely like just how real these characters are. They have real-life problems to go along with their fairytale-like love. This isn't some cutesy story where there is a big, bad villain trying to keep them a part. Instead, this story (this trilogy really) is about the internal demons that might plague a relationship, and I believe the author does a good job of bringing these types of problems to light in the story.
Character-wise, I really fell for Seth a bit more in this book. I thought the first book had done a great job of introducing the characters, providing some background, and depicting some character development. However, in this book I felt as though Seth had a great deal of character development. He really grew. Jessie didn't really seem to have much development. We learned more about her past, whereas the first book we learned more about his past, but beyond that she didn't really grow as a person in this book. Toward the very end, we get some. Similar to Seth in the first book. Considering the amount of world and character introduction thr first book required, less character development is often expected. Come the second book, generally we expect to see that development really take off. I believe it did for Seth but not so much for Jessie. I'm hoping in the last book we get to see more growth from Seth, but really I hope we get some real character growth from Jessie.