Phu,
I had issues with this book when i read it the first time, that's why i never picked up the second one afterwards. But on second readthrough, the issues became more hard to ignore.

This feels like an adult book, with YA characters. and that did not work for me at all. So many things in this book felt "meh" or just were "plot convenient". Especially the middle of the book had a ton of fillers, that were unnecessary and could have been removed. Just unnecessary blow up.
But if I would have liked the characters, i think i would not have cared, but for me the characters were so stereotype-y that i was very bored and felt they were very annoying? So, it really wasn't my case.

The good parts are the dane twins, and the bloody parts. I also loved the aesthetic of the world building and the magic. But it just wasn't enough?
It also did not mature well with time. A lot of things have been done so much better by now, that it just does not feel original anymore. And a lot of the tropes just became very bland over time.

It's a good book, if you have read YA and are now searching for books to get into adult fantasy. And it's a good book, if you like stylistic characters and like comic inspired characters. But if you look for something deeper and more fleshed out, this is not the book to go.