I pre-ordered this the moment I realized it was coming out this year and I was not disappointed. This book is an anthology that occurs before, after, and during The Folk of the Air series that gives us a further exploration of Cardan's character.  The snippets we get from his childhood allow us to further understand why Cardan was so callous and cruel throughout the series. A lot of his behavior, especially in The Cruel Prince was a coping mechanism that he developed to be able to survive in faerie. We get more detailed glimpses of his relationships with Valerian and Nicasia as well as Locke, which helped further characterize them as well. The parts I enjoyed the most were of course where we got to see more of Jude and Cardan after the events of the last book. If you loved the main characters in this series as much as I did you will not be disappointed in this semi-sequel.