This is the 2nd book in this series & I'm glad I read the first one or I would have been totally lost..To understand all the references in this book you need to read the first one.The characters relationship to each other are not defined well in this one ether so again, you need to read the first oneI also liked the first one better..this one is slow to start but it does pick up in the endI will probably get the next one but if it is like this one that will be it for this series.