Definitely a higher 3 star than the first book in this series. I still find the present tense to be a bit weird, but overall, it was better.
Having a male lead who is not a complete dick does wonders for a narrative. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the story and still love the idea of assassin nuns. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the way that gods/religions work - they are a bit...umm, deus ex machina-y in a way that solves psychological problems that I'd prefer to see worked through.
Still, this is a solid sequel and fixes many of the things I didn't like about the previous book.