I thought that this was the strongest book of the series so far. I thought that the conflict was well planned out, and even though it wasn't excuted in the way I thought it would be, the book still left me very pleased at the end. 
 I like how Raphael and Elena's relationship continuously grows in these books, and they keep getting stronger. True they have things to work out between them, but the point is that they do. They listen to each other about the other's wants / needs and they work it out. I like that niether of them will give the other up for anything even walking into certain death. 
 I really liked Raphael's Seven more in this book than the others. You can truly see how they are adjusting to Elena and almost coming to accept her as who she is, and not a weakness. Although some would have you believe otherwise, I don't think any of them would ever hurt her even if Raphael were no longer around to protect her (and I honestly wouldn't have said that even in the 2nd book of the series). 
 The threat in this book is Raphael's mother, who we've had mention of in the previous books. I like that all of this has been built up since the first book. Raphael would have memories of his mother, and we would get little snippets of information about her until this book where she finally makes her appearance. The same can be said for other things such as Elena's childhood memories. As unpleasant as they are, we at first get little glimpses / phrases of what she went through, but throughtout the three books so far we've finally gotten the whole picture. 
 I almost feel like this was the end of one story arc in the series. True, there are still a few questions left up in the air, but the major things that were introduced in that first novel have been figured out. 
 There is a hopeful hint of things to come for Elena and Raphael in the future. I hope that Nalini Singh gives us that hint. 
 The next book in the series is to focus on Dmitri. I like the change of direction that the books will take. I think that there are to be 8 books total in the series (at least at this time). I figure the next three can go off on different members of the Seven, of course with Elena and Raphael in there too, and then the last two books will end out the series with our couple again. 
 I look forward to continuing the series. For me, it started off a little uncertain, but it's been worth it to stick it out. Until Then!