Some time ago, I read the author's other work set in this world, The Counterfeit Viscount. At that time I was fascinated by worldbuilding and wanted to revisit this bleak, dystopian world. Finally, I reached for this book, and man, I was not disappointed. Here, the world is shown in a different light (or rather darkness): there are almost no mentions of a past war but you get a deep intro into its justice (lol) system and day-to-day workings. It was bleak, it was dark, and yet it still managed to build a believable romance and made me care about the characters. Good job.