I really wanted to like this book. The world is interesting, though you are kind of thrown in at a weird place where there's nothing going on but a lot of sitting around and whining.

The main character is, quite frankly, annoying. If we weren't given the POV of the main villain, then it might have actually worked, but we are and the guy is so "Capital E" Evil, that watching the main character pine over him feels outrageous.

Having this guy be a Tzar who supposedly cared a ton about his people, all he's doing is lounging around and complaining about losing his villain husband while his subordinates are ready to do something about it. It's hard to understand why they love this guy and wanna support him when that's all he does.

There was also a significant amount of sex scenes in just the first 40% that I read. I don't take issue with sex scenes, but one chapter ended with one and then the next started with another two characters going at it and I'm not entirely sure what it was adding to the plot (especially at a juncture where we barely know any of these characters and are meant to be getting invested in them). It just felt like it was thrown in there to be salacious and while it might work for some, it didn't work for me.