i give this book a 3.75 because it was really good but i do not think it was as good as the previous book. 

i was hoping to find out even more about

the shepherd king. i feel like we did learn a lot, but i was disappointed in what this centuries long rivalry boiled down to. essentially, the rowan’s had a 500 year long reign of terror because of a casualty in the form of the shepherd kings sister. i do agree that this is a travesty, but was expecting something a bit more chaotic and grim considering other events and elements in this duology.

i will say that i absolutely loved being able to learn more about other characters from the shifting POV. i missed having Elspeths internal monologues and dialogues with the nightmare, but having Elms POV easily makes up for this. Elm quickly became my favorite character in this duology, and i wish there was more to be looking forward to. 

i absolutely recommend this book; i enjoyed this a lot and will be looking for next works by the author.