We catch up with our MC, Paige, shortly after she’s fought for and won the Rose Crown. Battered, bruised, exhausted, and the new Underqueen of the Syndicate, Paige struggles to gain the trust and adoration of those she rules. With her focus on maintaining a working relationship between humans and the Ranthem as they unite against Scion, she doesn’t have time to think about appeasing her naysayers.

Readers are quickly thrust into chaos as the threat of Scion’s Senshield project becomes a reality. Paige has limited time and resources to get all of the voyants she possibly can to safety, and then to track down the rumored portable Senshield devices based on the scant information she’s been provided. Her plans are foiled more than once, as seems to be custom at this point in the series, and she struggles to overcome challenge after challenge with the help of her friends and advisors. It doesn’t help that her feelings for Warden continue to bloom, when they are in an impossible situation and cannot be together in the ways they want to be.

Though this is, by far, the shortest installment in the series (not including bonus novellas), it still packs quite a punch and leaves readers gasping for breath by its conclusion. All of the events happen in such a short span of time that it’s hard to believe how much action can be crammed into the book’s pages, but Shannon does so masterfully, as always. It’s been a while since a book series has left me with such a hangover after each book that I struggle to pick up another book soon after, but here I am again: wanting desperately to continue on with the 4th book, while also not wanting to move on so quickly that I am left desolate upon finishing the next book and waiting for the 5th book to publish in early 2025. Reading an ongoing series truly tests my resolve and patience every single time.