While I appreciate the authors efforts to write a diverse medieval romance I really struggled with this book after having enjoyed so many others in the series.  Rowena is so unlikeable.  I hate FMCs who embody "not like other girls" as their entire personality and that seemed to be a lot of what Rowena had going for her.  The mystery and intrigue around the larger assassin plot was interesting but didn't really pick up until later in the book, and while the author's note takes a very "both sides" stance around conflict in the middle ages, the actual writing in the book seemed very one sided.  There were also so many mentions of horrific past abuse, so while not explicitly happening on page during the course of this story, I would check content warnings.