So I did enjoy this book but not even remotely as much as the first book and it really is obvious that this was written by a new/debut-ish author. The beauty of the first book was the romance and magic in the backdrop of Russia but this book had a very different feel. I am a big lover of politics and historical events within fiction but I have a problem with the happily ever after ending...after the characters spent the whole book trying to kill each other...and had an attempted coup...in Russia. All the characters can't get over any problems throughout the book but then ALL of a sudden at the end, they suddenly decide to put their differences aside?

I absolutely HATE Pasha's sister who came off as the villain to me but nothing happens to her to the point where I don't quite know why she was even required in the story. I really enjoyed the concept of building a rebellion but Skye either edited out WAYYYYYY too much of just wrote that part of the story very lazily. There were a few things that were just glossed over and never really solved which once again made me think "well why did you even bring this up if you aren't going to do anything with it? This is the last book in the duology."

The hardcovers are super gorgeous and I may reread this duology in the future when I want a romancey fantasy book set in Russia and I will definitely keep an eye out for more of Skye's work but she definitely needs to work on a more fulfilling, creative and complete conclusion.