A good bridge to the new series Maas plans on writing. There are still a bunch of strings that haven't been tied up yet. They did just all survive a grueling war, so everyone is healing at their own pace. I'm glad a lot of the characters like Feyre are finding healthy ways of dealing with the remnants of the war, though. Lucien also seems to be doing a bit better, despite the unfortunate situation with Elaine. I'm hoping that their rocky relationship improves as time goes by. I don't blame her for how uncomfortable she is around him. He is the reason she's condemned to immortality even though she yearns to be human, still. I know a lot of people think Azriel is starting to have growing feelings for Elaine, but I think calling them romantic is a stretch at this point. They seem to be more along the lines of friendship for now, but I wouldn't discard the possibility of a romance. I personally, would like Elaine and Lucien together, but that's just personal preference. As long as the romantic relationships are well developed, I'm game for anything. I'm really looking forward to future books and hope we don't have to wait too long. For anyone that felt ACOWAR wasn't wrapped up enough, I think this will partially quench the thirst for more, but not completely, I will explain in more detail below.



**SPOILERS AHEAD**



I've felt since the last book that Rhysand has become more of a caricature because he's almost too "perfect". He doest feel like a real person anymore in a lot of ways. His flaws showed their way through a bit more in this book, but not in the way I expected. Rhysand went a bit overboard with his treatment of Tamlin in this book, as awful as Tamlin is, I think. I'm not for kicking a man when he is down, and Tamlin is pretty much at rock bottom right now. I think that extra piling on from Rhysand was unnecessary.


**SPOILERS END HERE**


Feyre seems to show a lack of understanding that just because she is coping reasonably well with her trauma that not everyone else is. Her treatment of other characters shows a lack of empathy on her part, but I assume that will get unpacked and hopefully resolved in future books. I'm glad we're moving on from Rhys and Feyre ad focal points. I feel like we are done exploring those characters in depth and I'm more interested in everyone else. I'm especially excited to see Nesta and Cassian develop. They have a lot of trauma to work through and I'm sure it will be satisfying to see them work through it together. 

Overall, I feel like this book could have been better and probably could have been shorter. Maas' sex scenes are over the top, as usual, but they didn't overake the main story, so it's fine. This book was weaker than it could have been, but I still think it's worth picking for context for the upcoming books just for Nesta and Cassian at least.