Loved this book! Lost sleep over this book. I know that I'm totally going to have to re-read it at a slower pace to catch things that I missed and to write an intelligent review that's more that gushing and squeeing and exclamation points. There were so many WHOA! moments - Darroc's death being one. I was actually getting annoyed with the "sleeping with the enemy" plot device at this point,thinking it was too predictable, and she totally shut me up with that. It let you know right then that nothing we've read previously was as it seems so be prepared to be blown away. I sort of figured it was Rowena behind Alina's death, but Dani's role in it shocked me. That poor kid had been manipulated her whole life. Can't wait to see what happens next for her. Mac being able to forgive her was a plus. And BARRONS!! I went from heartbroken to melting in a puddle, and heartbroken again with the story of his son. So glad he and Mac worked it out. And how HOT was that reconciliation!!! And V'lane... I was actually starting to like him (not enough for Mac to choose him over Barrons, though)...and he didn't even exist. Finding out he was Cruce was like an actual death happening right there on the page, if that makes any sense. Now I want to know what the real V'lane was like. I also detect some Ryodan/Jo tension that I'm sure she'll explore in later books. So happy that there are more books in this universe!
Now what I didn't like...some of Mac's thoughts were repetitive, which I think was more writing style than Mac herself. There were passages of inner dialogue that were verbatim from something she said 3 or 4 pages prior. I actually thought my Nook was having issues and the pages weren't advancing, that's how exact the words were, like she cut and paste them. And I don't mean her musings on things Barrons said in previous books or the parallel talk of the king about their brief walks in sanity.
Another thing, was this a big, gaping plothole or purposely done: if the stones and runes make the book inert, how was it able to trick Rowena into taking down the runes? And if it was because the stones were gone, then who took them?? What happened to the thread about the traitor in the abbey or was that just a Book-possessed Barb? And am I mistaken or did Mac mess up with her Rowena/Book showdown and claim that Fiona took out the sidhe seers instead of Barb? And why did no one seem to care that Isla killed a bunch of sidhe seers when she took the book? I doubt I'd still be using her image to guard the book she herself stole, possessed or not.
And so, what is Mac actually? Unseelie King? Princess? I know she's a manifestation of the Book, but...And what about sidhe seers in general, are they really Unseelie, at least partially???