I’ve put off writing reviews for too long because it’s a bit hard for me now to articulate what I liked about this book. The characters, definitely! I still like Isabelle a lot and still see a lot of Sam Vimes in Jean-Claude, and the supporting cast has a lot of new and interesting figures in it. Powerful women! A dashing guard! Nasty villains! And more! And by and large they continue to be eminently sensible about how they go about things, which is already refreshing.

I also enjoyed seeing the world expand, getting a better sense of the wider world and the political structures and seeing other magical abilities woven in, though sometimes that all got to be a bit much and detracted from the adventure and escapism of the story. (All of that info gets used and to good effect, though, and I’m interested in seeing how much crops up again in the next book.)

The story itself, the mystery and intrigue, was a little bit more standard. More expected things happen, more character development hits common notes, and I found myself ahead of Isabelle a few times, where in the last book I was right on par, if not a bit behind. That said, there still were moments of shock and thrill and glee and having the rug pulled out from under me, and some proper swashbuckling, and where the first book was largely about Isabelle’s personal journey, this one’s shaking much deeper foundations.

This book was also funnier than the last one, but maybe I’m mis-remembering. There are some really good lines. Really good. There’s more of a sense of vim and adventure too, like Craddock’s let himself have fun with the story instead of writing page-turning intrigue. And honestly, if Craddock’s sequelitis—or middle-of-a-trilogy syndrome, not sure—results in a smidge more infodump, a slightly weaker plot, and a joy in the writing, that’s fine by me. It’s still a strong book and sequel.

To bear in mind: While this book is imo excellent re: feminism, it’s still imperfect re: queer characters and fat jokes. Not ickily so, but there are moments. Also, there’s some reasonably graphic gore and some pretty awful described torture, as well as other similar body-in-peril situations.

8/10 ( )

With adventure, intrigue, treason, promises of manifold power and even immortality of a sort, Isabelle's life is unlikely to be dull, but add in a charming shapeshifter, and there might be some fun. Very lively, with interesting doings among the good guys and the bad with a few puzzles about which are which. And yes, some fun. ( )