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Valerie's character was not done justice to me. She could've had a way bigger voice and personality. All of her scenes, except a couple, involved her riding around on that forsaken bird. If she did speak, it was her yelling down from the bird. She could've been very Hermione-esque, but she was more like Moaning Myrtle to me. The scene of her actually in the library with Will and Peter where she helped them figure out the book was in Hebrew was an opportunity for her to become a part of the adventure, but instead she was placed right back in the background even though she assisted with the single most important key to the success of the mission. She was just there with barely any dialogue. She really did remind me of a ghost. I don't even really know the purpose of her character other than to help with the book. Same goes for Damian and Dea, Will's guardians who set the tone for the entire book but left on the backburner for the whole thing and then just imprisoned at the end. It was like the whole book changed like three times because a new set of characters were introduced every few chapters and they didn't exactly compliment the supporting characters. First it was Dea and Damian and Will's parents, then it was Drinkwater, Valerian and Tear, then it was Peter, Valerie and Emmy, then the Prince and Auralius. The characters were introduced in waves instead of gradually and it's like they weren't made to coexist because the interaction was either nonexistent or forced. The Prince wasn't involved enough. Where was he when he wasn't there? He just popped up out of nowhere. It seemed like a bunch of random nooks lead to Auralius' cave. How convenient. Auralius is the only one who had a semblance of a story besides Will and Emmy, and Valerie, with his mongrel/mudblood background. I'm biracial and I could actually relate to him. I LOVED how they called him a Harmony at the end. That is one of the more inspiring parts of the book when he found a whole secret underground city of people just like him who didn't answer to a degrading misnomer. He even may have found love. There was no romance which is surprising. I am not a romantic and I usually think it's unnecessary but this book made me want it. There were no relationships. The characters didn't build on each other. I kind of shipped Peter and Valerie a little because it was like they bumped heads with Peter accusing her of working for the Fate Sealers. I could go on.

I agree, Kotsotu, in fact my review mentioned this, I think. All of the characters needed more development. And like you, I did expect Valerie to be more like Hermione.

Valerie was shown as an annoyance the whole story. It could have changed, a little more development might have given her a really good role.
The problem is that she knew many things that would have surely helped Will long his adventures. She knew that Valerian was evil, could have helped them translate the book, but the author didn't give her any good roles. This is a negative of the book

I also think the book would have had a better appeal if the characters were given a bit more development. Most of the characters were poorly developed.