I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Tamora Pierce was my first favorite author and the first author whose work's I devoured as soon as I could get my hands on the next one. Tempests and Slaughter was no different. I purchased it the day it came out. It took me far too long to find the time to read it.

I was pleased to see this book had such length. Compared to Alanna or Wild Magic, this book is a tome double to triple in size. It was worth the length, though. There were parts of the book where the build-up was slow, and the action at the end wasn't what I would consider end-worthy, but I think I could read 500 pages more of Arram's day to day life without anything too exciting happening and still be thrilled with the book. Arram's (Numair's) character shines brilliantly here. It was a delight to watch him begin to grow into himself. Verice and Ozorne are equally fantastic.

As for the end, I believe this book is meant to flow seamlessly into the next, so there wasn't much of a climactic point, in my opinion. I suppose that's alright, but it was my reason for rating this a 4 star read instead of a 5 star. I believe the next book will focus on Arram's discovery in the river and hopefully much more on the institution of slavery.

It was a delight to see more diverse characters in this book than in some of the other series. I'm so pleased to see Tamora Pierce grow as an author in this way.

I anxiously await the next installment and hope to see many more books in this universe in the future.