Wow! You definitely improved on setting the mood! And the blending is a lot more smooth! The girl has a very warm color palette, which makes her look friendly and inviting! The cool blue background behind her fiery hair draws the viewer's eye to the girl! The drawback with this is that the blue-green ends of her hair blend in a bit with the background. Luckily, your use of line thickness differentiates between hair and background. To prevent this problem, you could make either the hair or the background a darker value of the hue you're using. My other critique would be that the arm facing the viewer looks a bit stiff and the hand looks a bit odd (but we all know drawing hands are a pain in the neck!) The arm seems to be too straight, maybe have the elbow bend a little in the direction opposite the hand is pointing (in this case just a tad to the viewer's left).
All in all, the picture is very inviting and the boy in the background (nice use of perspective!) is intriguing. It makes the reader ask, "What happens next in the story?"