This is definitely a great book, and completely on par with ‘Malice’. However, so far there’s been something holding me back from giving this series a full five-stars, though I'm not sure what it is. 
This book definitely suffered from middle book syndrome in the first two or three hundred pages. There wasn't much plot going on, and while the character relationships were nice, they weren't developed enough to make up for the lack of active plot. There was a LOT of travelling. 
I also predicted a lot more of the plot points in this one compared to ‘Malice’. I loved ‘Malice’ because there were so many completely unpredictable shocks and twists, and I definitely missed that in this book. 
On the plus side, I really enjoyed that the battles were mainly seen from onlooker's perspectives rather than the people fighting, it gives a fresh perspective compared to many other fantasies. It also doesn't shy away from the waste of war, and in fact criticises it much more than most other fantasies I've read to date. 
I loved how the POVs came together at the end, and seeing the same characters and events through different eyes. In so many books with multiple POVs the POVs are in isolation and never really come together, so this was a nice change. It’s also great having POVs from both sides of the battle, and understanding the enemy’s motivation. 
The ending really sold this book for me. Gywnne killing off so many characters made me respect it a lot more, even if I was a teary mess by the end. 
On a weird note, I also noticed about halfway through this book that the characters don't have surnames. It's wild that I never noticed that before.