Wow, I had not realized that its been five years since the last Merry book. I did plan on rereading the older books before getting and reading this one but that never happened and I'll admit that I was lost on a few plot points that I think happened in the past. But this was boring for the most part.

Honestly, at the end of this book I felt like I had only read a summary or a preview of the actual book. Nothing much happens. Well not really, a major character dies, babies get born, Andais starts to make some personality changes and the King loses his crown but I feel like this was all glossed over. The guys are not so interesting and I am still scratching my head over how each baby has multiple biological fathers. Granted that last has not been proven yet but I just want it explained to me. I understand this is fiction and can suspend reality but come on.

I read another review that said the entire book took place in a week's time. But nothing really happened. This felt like a prologue. Hopefully, the next book will be better. There were some promising plot lines that were started but left dangling here. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait at least two years since it seems LKH is already working on the next Anita book. It wasn't all bad (or even mostly to me) its just that the good parts were left unfinished if you will, leaving the reader feeling like you didn't get much.