Living for Books

Do any characters grow or change during the course of the novel? I understand that this book is a "companion novel" in a yet to be completed series. The book club started reading from y1 and we've just started z2. Given there must have been some sort of introduction in the first book, I felt that the story took awhile to kick in. You know something good is coming, but you have to wait a long while until you finally get to the point you don't want to put the book down.
What motivates a given character’s actions? It's okay to be different. All of the characters in this book are set apart by a significant ability, behaviour or background. How they then use this to interact with each other is the fascinating part of this book.
Which characters do you particularly admire or dislike? I liked Joy and Zane. Both their characters brought complexities to the story in fun, page turning way and both had to deal with past issues before it started eating into their present.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author.