Kris has been called home from Alwah because her kingdom, in the person of her great-grandfather King Ray, has a problem for her to solve. The Greenfeld Empire is undergoing a civil war and the emperor has asked for assistance. Since Kris knows the players having met both the Emperor and the Grand Duchess, she's the right person to send in to try to broker a peace.

However, the Empress who is really the power behind the rather clueless Emperor isn't ready to give up power. It was repeated assassination attempts on Grand Duchess Victoria that led her to fleeing the heart of the empire. With Vicky out of the way, it is now Kris and her team who are fending off the assassination attempts.

With many of her former colleagues deciding to stay and build their lives on Alwah, Kris has to assemble a new team. This one consists of negotiators from various fields and their associates because finding a way for the civil war to end with take more than Kris's usual gunboat diplomacy.

Conditions in the Greenfeld empire are awful. Trade and business have been disrupted, planets are facing starvation, and piracy is rampant. The Empress and her faction are willing to ruin everything if it means that she will have the power at the end of it all.

Kris is sent in with a small fleet, but her fleet is the most up to date in space. She doesn't mind that her force will be underestimated. She knows that if needed she can wield her big stick and it will be needed. As her payment, she has demanded a desk job for herself and her husband Jack after this task has been completed. She feels that it is time that someone else becomes the point of the spear for her home planet.

This episode reconnects Kris with Vicky Peterwald who has done a lot of growing up since they were last together. It was an entertaining episode in a long-running series. ( )

Return to the good old days

This book hardens back to the origins of the series in many ways. The pace is brisk, the good guys are 'outnumbered' and the mission is impossible. I have missed this. It also acts as an excellent capper to her career as a naval officer.

The sole difficulty for me is the competence of the good guys. They end up being unbeatable in some respects. The lone fall down (kidnapping) was almost orchestrated to make the rest of the story flow logically. ( )

Return to the good old days

This book hardens back to the origins of the series in many ways. The pace is brisk, the good guys are 'outnumbered' and the mission is impossible. I have missed this. It also acts as an excellent capper to her career as a naval officer.

The sole difficulty for me is the competence of the good guys. They end up being unbeatable in some respects. The lone fall down (kidnapping) was almost orchestrated to make the rest of the story flow logically. ( )

Very different situation for Kris - back home, and doing a negotiation...between Peterwalds! Henry Peterwald asks her for help with the civil war. Vicky's doing her best to fix what's been broken, which has put her on a collision course with her father and stepmother. Kris gets to find out how negotiations work - not so much with the blowing things up (though there's some of that, too). And extra fun dealing with a nursing baby through all this. It's a switch in situation, but still a fun story watching Kris (and Vicky) deal with this. There are a few short scenes from Vicky's point of view - and several references that I suspect would make more sense to me if I'd read her books. Still looking for those. One major arc in Kris' life is done...but she's still got stories to tell (but now I have to wait until the next book comes out!). ( )