Huh. Not entirely sure what to think. 
 The Good: 
 - Mead's treatment of Dimitri and Rose. Can I say, WOW. She took some very realistic, mature themes and handled them superbly. Though these scenes made me frustrated, it was more from wanting Rose to break out of her state and kick ass! But since that's not realistic in her situation, I appreciated where Mead went with their interactions. ...It is sad that, even though Dimitri features quite often in the V.A. series to date, he has more scenes as a Strigoi than as a dhampir. 
 - Rose's "transformation" from a strong, capable, badass Strigoi killer to a mentally and physically weak shadow of her former self was essential. Even though she's been through a lot, what with all of the death and destruction she's faced, what happened to Dimitri is probably her only breaking point - besides the same happening to Lissa, I suppose. 
 - Rose/Dimitri river scene. It was surprisingly long, but I thought Mead did a good job of handling both the action and thought sequences. I also liked the "Dimitri's lessons" theme that was running through the book. 
 - New insight into Spirit abilities and the shadow-kissed bond. 
 - Victor drama. Hathaway family drama. 
 - Dimitri's family and getting a glimpse of dhampir communes. 
 The Meh: 
 - Lissa's story. It was kind of boring and contrasted glaringly with what Rose was experiencing. She does learn some interesting things about Spirit in the end, and there were a couple of interesting twists, but overall it was dull compared to the intensity of Rose's plot. 
 - The new characters. Sydney, Avery, maybe even Abe; they were all a bit unexceptional. Sydney in particular, felt very forced. Though she assists Rose but only features for a few scenes, somehow we know about her interests, her quirks, and the fact that she's stuck in a job that goes against her beliefs. Huh, guess that means she's coming back. Abe was more interesting, but ultimately still new character fodder. And don't even get me started on Avery. 
 The Ugly: 
 - Rose's magical ability to know everything Lissa's gone through. I understand that Rose has always been able to know and experience what Lissa's experiencing and thinking, but who thinks back through what they've gone through to get to their current state? Probably no one, which is why Rose should not be so familiar with what goes on in-between her visits to Lissa. Maybe Mead could have used Adrian to fill in the blanks (though I get why she did not allow the Adrian-Rose dream visits to continue on for very long... plot stuff) or simply left us a little bit disoriented and confused. 
 - New Dimitri flashbacks. Don't get me wrong. I love Dimitri. I remember the pivotal moments in Dimitri and Rose's relationship... because Rose was narrating them for us while she experienced them. But somehow, even though this is a first person POV, Rose forgot to tell us a few things. So while she's grieving, boom! Magical, new memories of her and Dimitri. I understand now wanting to rehash the Rose/Dimitri scenes ad nauseum (like the one in the first book with the lust charm??) but inventing new stuff was a bit sloppy and inappropriate. The one exception was getting to see more of their thoughts and actions following the cabin scene, but even that still smacked of "came up with new stuff on the fly!" I'm all for new material; just make sure it is seamless and not an obvious throw-away. 
 - I have to admit, the beginning was a bit sloppy. Even though Mason was unable to tell Rose where Dimitri had gone in the previous book, and Rose had stated she knew where Dimitri was, somehow in this book she magically remembers Mason telling her Dimitri went to Siberia. I am usually not observant enough to catch inconsistencies, so if I caught it, that means you did a bad job of covering it up. 
 Overall, I think it was worth reading for the scenes I mentioned. Just... some parts were a bit of a struggle.