4.5 stars

This was an unexpectedly good book.

I liked:
- Nemesis, my sweet, vicious, synthetic fav. She was thrust into a confusing world while still learning emotions and humanity, and omg she could not catch a break. I want to give her a hug.

- Deadly, the hybrid dog beast that stole my heart. I love that he allowed Nemesis to adopt him, and save him from the fighting ring. His death was legit one of the saddest parts of the book.

- all the scheming. There was so much of it! Nemesis was plotting to kill the Emperor, Tyrus was pretending to be mad so he could overthrow the Emperor, and Cygna was trying to either kill or manipulate everyone.

I wasn’t a fan of:
- the slower pace. It felt like there wasn’t much of anything going on unless a grand scheme was either in progress or being revealed. I like slower books sometimes, but this one just didn’t work for me.

- Sidonia’s petulant attitude. I’m sorry, but grow up.

- Sidonia’s first “death.” What was the point of that? To spark Nemesis’ vengeance and make her play into Tyrus’ hands? Essentially, she died, wasn’t actually dead, came to the Chrysanthemum, was the focal point of Nemesis’ worry, and then died for real. I just didn’t see the point of that. Oops.

Overall, I did have some problems with this book, but I did enjoy it, far more than I expected to. I’ll definitely be reading the sequel!