Agh! It took my forever to finally get to this but I did! Now I think in comparison to book 1, I preferred book 1 a bit more but not by much. There is SO MUCH political and social maneuvering going on for this whole book which leads up to the pure chaos of the emperor being usurped. Maybe that's how to explain this book: pure organized but frantic political chaos.

I loved that Jean Claude got more developed and we saw him as the father figure but as well as his own human who has a history and who has definitely changed over the decades. Isabelle is kind of a bad ass in this book and OH! MY! GOD! HALLELUJAH! THERE IS STILL NO POWERFUL ROMANCE OVERSHADOWING HER PLOT! HELL YES! THANK YOU SIR!