YMMV / Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum

• Growing the Beard: Judging by Amazon reviews, a lot of readers thought that the series really picked up with the third book, where Noah started being a lot more confident and competent. On the other hand, some readers who liked him being an Unlikely Hero in the first two books thought he Took a Level in Jerkass.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Brielle managing to reduce the previously haughty and defiant master-mage Grunwin to cowering compliance just by reciting her family history at him. Notable since it's the first time she actually does anything to help Noah, and it goes a long way towards showing why she's an invaluable ally in spite of her off-putting personality.
  • Imogen arrives in the monster-infested wasteland of Ghogiel alone and proceeds to dodge every danger, find the one group of people still fighting against Lilith, get them to trust her (in spite of their well-earned paranoia, and in spite of the fact that she's steeped in Hexen magic), talk them into sparing Neveah (who had gotten herself captured by them), and finally find Noah and Brielle (who had gotten themselves captured by Lilith-worshipers) and single-handedly take down the group of armed men and minor witch guarding them with an overwhelming display of magic. This, by the way, in a place that embodies the spiritual principle of hindrances and obstacles.
  • Noah, after weeks of mind-controlled slavery and bouts of Cold-Blooded Torture every time he showns any sign of defiance, figures out that none of his captors are healers and so they must bring in someone else to fix his wounds after he's passed out from each torture session. So he intentionally provokes his captors, getting himself tortured, and forces himself to stay conscious just so he'll get a chance to plead with the healer to help him escape. Heroic Willpower at its finest. What's more, it works.
• Nightmare Fuel: All of the Second Trial. It takes place in a great hall full of metal statues, each of which depicts a different one of Lilith's creatures, many of which would be Nightmare Fuel in their own right (the one that looks like a little girl with the front of her head missing especially comes to mind). On timed intervals, one statue somewhere in the hall animates - though it remains made of metal and thus invulnerable to non-magical attacks - and starts prowling for the group. And then, after the heroes have fought a few of tough battles and are starting to slow down from their injuries, the lights in the hall start going out...
• Obvious Judas: There's clearly something up with Victor from the moment Neveah tries to kill him on sight, even if she can't remember why. By the end of the first battle, he's throwing up red flags left and right by openly encouraging Noah to give into his worse impulses while tacitly approving of his army committing war crimes. This makes it very easy to deduce, from the one-fourth point of the book, that said character will prove to be a bad guy... and there is a great deal of book still to go from there.
• Squick: Noah's threesome with Sarah and Lizbeth while all three of them are under the influence of corruption. Let's just say it ain't pretty.