As always in this character-driven story, everyone sits around talking about how they feel about events, but no one actually does anything.

Mind you, it's all quite pleasant, but I'm really starting to wonder about the viability of this series. Comparing the individual volume statistics on Goodreads and LibraryThing, the ratings are consistently high, but the number of people rating and reviewing them is on a steady and disturbingly steep downward curve. While those numbers are nowhere near what the total sales for the books must be, I would suppose there has to be some sort of correlation in regard to diminishing sales numbers for each book. I comfort myself with the thought that most of the sales are going to kids and teens who cannot be bothered with updating book apps on their phones.

Still, here's hoping the glacial pace of the story stays ahead of the sales curve, because I'd really like to see how this turns out. ( )