Daindreth is free of his curse, and he and Amira are finally married. However, that doesn’t mean that things are going to be easy for them. Daindreth needs to take control of the empire, and he knows his mother is still out there. Vesha, desperate to protect the empire, makes a new bargain with the goddess Moreyne. As Daindreth and Amira prepare to wage a political battle to take their rightful places ruling the empire, a new threat rises that threatens both their plans and the world.
This book is a transitional one in a lot of ways, and it feels slower in part because of that, and in part because we’ve added another point of view to the mix. I’m still not sure how I feel about getting Vesha’s point of view. On the one hand, it was interesting and the reader gets some important information from it. But it also really threw the pacing of the book off. It really felt like it took a long time for anything in happen, though things did pick up in the second half of the book. However, there was a lot to like about this book as well.
I liked the fact that Amira and Daindreth are still figuring out their relationship both personally and how they operate together as leaders and rulers. I also liked the fact that we’re getting to see Daindreth actually getting to take charge and be a leader. We also get more Thadred, and he remains my favorite character. There are still questions to be answered, and hopefully they will be addressed in the next book. I think the next book in the series is the last one, and I’ll be interested in seeing how things wrap up. I’m really curious to see how the threat of the cythraul will end up playing out. This book was a little uneven, but not enough to throw me out of the story, and I’m excited to see the conclusion on the series. Four out of five stars.