Ooof. What a slog. I had to force myself to finish this one because I wanted to be caught up on Diana and Matthew for the next All Souls book.

This book had several problems. First, it reads like a placeholder book between the first three books and whatever comes next, meaning literally nothing happens in the way of conflict/rising action/resolution. Everyone just hangs out and thinks about Marcus’ past (where nothing much happens either).

The flashbacks to the past were written in such a predictable and amateurish way, I had a hard time believing Harkness actually wrote this book when compared to the previous three. And Marcus’ sections were boringgggg. Multiple scenes went like this:

*A mild conflict occurs and everyone else tries to solve the problem*
No one:
Marcus: *Picks up random artifact from mantle* this reminds me of the time in my past when…

And repeat throughout the book. One thing is for sure, Harkness doesn’t do write well when everything is going great for her characters.

I was really looking forward to this book since Marcus is one of my favourites from the original DoW trilogy, but this book is a bit of a slog to get through, and mostly underwhelming. 

First of all, it’s more like 3 stories in one that bounce around the following POVs:
1 - Phoebe and her journey as a baby vamp
2 - Marcus and his backstory/history through the American & French Revolutions, as both warmblood and vampire 
3 - Diana and the trials raising her Bright Born twins

Though there is attempted cohesion between the 3 storylines, it’s not executed well. Each perspective would have benefited as their own novella with a bit more fleshing out (separate from my next point), because they just seem to go nowhere. 

Secondly, this book suffers from almost too much detail of non-importance. I understand that Ms. Harkness is a historian and revels in describing European history, but it gets to the point of rambling sometimes that doesn’t lend to plot or character development. 

Thirdly, what is up with Phoebe?! I felt a disservice to her characterization was made - I don’t remember her being so petulant, and making her so for the sake of being a “baby vamp” missed the mark.