This almost deserves four stars, but I have too many small issues with it that compounded to leave a general distaste for most of the plot. Zoya and Nikolai had good character arcs. I really enjoyed them. Nina... was falling in love with someone else?

Spoiler

Just after burying Matthias? I am really mad about this. If you're going to write about gay characters, at least try to make it make sense! Don't just throw characters in there for "representation" when it doesn't fit with your plot. Nina should be grieving, not flirting.

I'm not sure how the different plots will all fit together ~ a tall order for book two. We'll see.

I also would have liked to see more of Alina, Mal, Kaz & the other crows, etc. They're all clearly still alive and probably doing interesting things. Or if they're not... they should be. I still don't believe that Alina would just step back and take no involvement in Ravka's well-being if there was something she could do. (And side note, I'm so glad the series aged the crows up... Nina being eighteen in this book doesn't work. So I'm imagining her in her twenties.)

A few quotes I loved:

Little red bird, every day you choose the work of living. Every day you choose to go on. There is no failure here, Nina.

"What if I get it wrong again?" What if she failed Juris as she had failed the others? Her life was crowded with too many ghosts.
"Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself... Zoya of the lost city. Zoya of the garden. Zoya bleeding in the snow. You are strong enough to survive the fall."

I am Nikolai Lantsov. I have no right to my crown.
But each day he might endeavor to earn it. If he dared continue on with the wound in his heart. If he dared to be the man he was instead of praying to return to the man he'd once been.
Maybe everything the monster said was true. All Nikolai had done or would do for his people might never be enough. A part of him might always remain beyond repair. He might never be a truly noble man or a truly worthy king. In the end, he might be nothing more than a good head of hair and a gift for delusion.
But he knew this much: He would not rest until his country could too.
And he would never, ever turn his back on a wounded man ~ even if that man was him.
Nikolai Nothing, snarled the demon. Ravka will never be yours.
Perhaps not. But if you loved a thing, the work was never done. Remember who you are.
Nikolai knew. He was a king who had only begun to make mistakes. He was a soldier for whom the war would never be over. He was a bastard left alone in the woods. And he was not afraid to die this day.