This book was just bad. The "plot twist" at the end everyone saw coming, and it didn't make sense. Why would the Bishop send the Replik back and not Ashen, she was completely on his side already. And then there's the fire powers - where did those even come from? The Duchess didn't have them in the first half of the series. Also I had to read the beginning like five times to even understand what was going on, and then the plot with Finn's shimmer wall thing was completely overshadowed. All the character's emotions are surface level, and these books were just so average - It's like the author was just trying to hit as many YA dystopian tropes as possible, and in doing so the book lacks any emotion. Where's the sadness? The anger? The joy when they get it right?
And everyone else did literally everything for Ashen - Finn and Rys did all the work, making plans and everything. Whenever there's the smallest problem someone always has the perfect tech thing to solve it. In every book there HAS to be a part where Ashen gets all dressed up for something for that image on the cover, and it's just pointless to the story.