I was a little torn between three and four stars on this book, but decided to go with the lower rating.

I had a lot of fun with the story overall. It grabbed me easily and I never had to push myself to finish. I was just excited to pick it up and read, which seems like a small thing but I haven't felt that way about many of the other books in the first two quartets. I liked Tris's student as well. I think it's an interesting relationship to explore, a student who's so much older than their teacher.

I also quite enjoyed the mystery/crime element. This is the only book in the series where you don't know who's committing the crime or why, and I found myself quite intrigued because I didn't remember. It doesn't really matter, the main focus is much more on the high fantasy magic elements, but I still think as a side story it's quite well done.

What I had an issue with was the culture Tris is visiting. She's traveled far south to a different country with very different customs and this book is heavy on othering people of that country. It's possible to critique the customs of a place without othering the people as whole, like what was done with Daja's book, but it didn't succeed here. Instead it fell more into the category of white savior trope, and this isn't the only one of Pierce's books that feels that way to me.

But I did still like this one, and it's probably my second favorite of this quartet. At least it didn't drag like the first two books did. It's left me very excited to get to The Will of the Empress, which is by far my favorite.