After reading through Seraphina as quickly as I possibly could, including finishing it at 3AM on a work night (morning?), I was excited to get to Shadow Scale. I was eager to see how Seraphina's life changed and how her romance with Kiggs proceeded, given their agreement at the end of the first book. Unfortunately, Shadow Scale was not nearly as fun a read as the first novel.

The things that I loved about Seraphina in the first novel were gone in the second. There was nothing that happened in book two that wouldn't have occurred if Seraphina wasn't there. She was merely an observer through the whole novel. She leaves Goredd to find the other half-dragons, but really, Abdo and Jannoula find them all for her. She tries to find Orma, but fails. She tries to recreate St. Abaster's fire, but Jannoula and the other half-dragons do it without her. She tries to sneak into Castle Orison and save Glisselda, but Selda saves her. She tries to mirror St. Abaster's fire back at Jannoula, but fails, and Pandowdy wakes up and takes Jannoula away (even after telling Seraphina that he wasn't going to help her).

What happened to the girl that investigated a murder without any help? What happened to the girl who bluffed her way into interrogating prisoners? What happened to the girl who faced down a dragon with nothing but words? What happened to the girl who bravely bared her scales to those around her and kept going through every obstacle, even though no one trusted her?

The ending was terrible. Seraphina accomplished nothing, and then Kiggs marries Glisselda anyway, even though both he and Selda are in love with Seraphina (whaaaaat??).