I felt like this book was stronger than The Gilded Wolves in a lot of ways, especially near the end, but it did take longer to read because of the Russia of it all. 

There are two main emotional threads running through this book: Laila's impending expiration date and the group's grief at Tristan's death. These two things affect all of the main characters in different ways, and I thought that the way they played into the ending was executed very well. I'm glad that I already have the last book so I won't have to wait forever to see how things get resolved.

Most of this book takes place in Russia, and it feels very Russian, which means that it's high on depression and low on plot for about 200 pages.

A lot of this book is spent on mourning a character who I never really cared about, so it's a testament to Roshani Chokshi's writing abilities that she got me to care so much about everyone else's grief.

I liked Séverin less in this book. I got sick of his flashbacks, and I didn't find his arc compelling until the very end. I liked Laila more than before, though. She felt more complicated and less overpowered, and her relationships with the other characters were portrayed in a really compelling way. That being said, I also stopped caring about their romance at all, which is a problem when so much of the story hinges on it.

Enrique and Zofia continue to be my favorites. There wasn't enough of Enrique in this book, but what we got was executed perfectly, especially when it came to his relationship with Hypnos. But Zofia was the real star. I loved everything that this book did with her character.

No spoilers but the ending is WILD and yeah I'm really glad that I'll be reading The Bronzed Beasts sometime in the next month rather than a year from now.