Well, it has been over 2 years since I read the first one, The Rose Master, but I was able to get back into this story pretty quickly, as the way it was begun brought up most of the details in such a way that it wasn't like an info dump, but rather woven into the story perfectly. You will need to read the first book, but I did not need to reread right before in order to jump back into the story. As with the first book, I was drawn into the story, and had a lot of trouble putting it down whenever I would have to go back to real life for work, or sleep, whatever.

I wished for maybe a bit more romance between Anne and August, although I'm sure that the way it was done was totally proper for the time period, and of course for a YA book. There is a monster/creature in this story that was extremely scary sounding, I could picture it in my head as I read, and it was something you would see in an extremely scary movie. In fact, the description reminded me a lot of the description of one of the creatures in the novel It by Stephen King, the book, not the movies. It was definitely written as horrifying as anything you'd find in a King novel.

You can read my full review at Lisa Loves Literature.