Books like Vincalis the Agitator

This book had me on the edge of my seat, hooked to the point where I stayed up too late because I had to find out what happened next. Then it started time-skipping, which isn't necessarily bad, especially if nothing interesting was happening during that time. I don't know if it was the time-skips, or the shifting POV, but I never felt attached to the characters. Especially when the two female main characters were poorly handled. Towards the end it felt like the book was in a downward spiral of awful things happening and no matter what the protagonists did, the bad guys were always one step ahead, which I personally don't enjoy. Then it ends with one ultimate disaster that had me going "Why did I waste my time reading this?" This is a prequel to a trilogy I read forever ago (and have completely forgot) so I thought this might spark my desire to re-read those books. It didn't.