I was all set to give this three stars, finding it as generally likeable as the other two in the series, until I came to a point about two-thirds of the way through the book. More on that in a moment. Where Arrow's Fall is a little stronger than the other books is that finally, all that set-up has paid off. The first two books often seemed like prolonged introductions, whereas here the war with the neighbouring country kicked off (and ended), the dodgy council members were unearthed, and the romantic subplot between Talia and Dirk came to a happy conclusion. HOWEVER. The most appealing parts of these books for me has always been the main character, who is unabashedly decent - as is, to be fair, pretty much everyone who works with her. In many ways that fundamental gentleness the characters show each other underlines more than anything else the young adult nature of the books. So when that young adult protagonist was gang-raped, it turned me right off. It's just so unnecessary. The whole torture scene, unpleasant as it was, would have been enough to put her out of action in the way that happens here. The sexual assault added nothing but a gratuitous edge to a series that was getting on very well without it. Fucking shame.