Xiran Jay Zhao held back absolutely nothing for this novel and I respect them so damn much for that. I have never loved and hated an antagonist as much as I did with Qin Zheng and this is the morally grey characters we need in media. 

I absolutely ate up all the feminine rage, and the pure manipulation between him and Zetian.  This is definitely a different vibe than Iron Widow but in my opinion it was everything I wanted and needed this book to be. I honestly think I preferred the heavy political intrigue of this versus more physical battling and fighting that was the vibe of book one. 

Literally my one and only complaint is that we don't really get much of the throuple but I can't even complain that much because I know they entirely had good purpose and reason for doing so. The tiny bits of romance we did get made it all the more sweeter. 

So many wild twists and turns throughout this book and I'm so invested and ready for the third book whenever it comes out.