Years ago now, I was also attempting this series. I remember finding the first book okay but the second book was such struggle I never actually got so far as to ever starting on the third. And yet it's such an incredibly popular series that now years later I felt like I ought to try again.

So I did. My experience so far has been much the same. The first book was okay. The second book rather a struggle.

Oh lord is it long. And detailed. And unnecessarily long. And unnecessarily detailed. I often felt like Fitz' days were meticulously described from morning to night, and the thing is, he rarely actually does anything. Most of the time he's just sitting there having things happen to him, but not really ever doing anything himself to try and help his own situation or anybody else's situation. And somehow at the same time he manages to find so many things to occupy himself with that I don't understand how he isn't half mad from sleep deprivation.

And then there's Molly. I could totally live without Molly. She feels shoe-horned in and the whole big angsty romance feels less and less like a romance when all they ever seem to do is have sex all night or argue about nothing at all or her blaming him for everything bad that has ever happened since the dawn of time, and why won't you just marry me? This last bit in particular irritated me time and time again, as she completely failed to even try to understand or accept that due to Fitz' somewhat unique parentage he was not free to do so however much he might wish things to be different. It made me like her less and less as the text plodded on.

To be honest, none of the characters are particularly likable, really. I'm pressing on with the third book because I've got it already (Wasn't quite an omnibus edition, but it was a similar sort of offer), so I might as well. I just hope some sort of salvation can come out of this mess.