Really liked finally reading all of this stories of that we had mentions of in the other books in this series. While this is not my favorite of the four that are currently published, it was definitely a good read. I read the first half of this before Queen of Shadows and the second half after I finished QOS, however, I would recommend reading it after Crown of Midnight or Heir of Fire because some of the characters and situations from this book come back in Queen of Shadows. Interestingly, I think that this book could also be read as the first book in the series. In my opinion, it tells one story of the events before Throne of Glass.