Wow. This was definitely my favorite book of the series so far. Arista was brilliant. Royce and Hadrian were great as always. I loved the relationship between all three of them. The new character, Amilia, was fantastic. She developed from a small, frightened girl to a strong and determined young lady. Thrace/Modina played an interesting role in this sequel, I'm curious to see where Michael J. Sullivan takes it. Ugh, I enjoyed this immensely. I was going to wait a little before continuing on with the series, but it kind of ended on a bit of a cliff hanger and I don't know if I can wait!