Many years ago the Empire had a breakout from the Otherside of geists. These Geists would take possession of people and cause chaos. The Order cleaned up the mess and now they are charged with keeping the supernatural at bay. Each Deacon team is made up of a Sensitive, a person who can sense / see geists, and an Active, a person who discharges the geists. 
 Sorcha Faris is a very powerful Active. After her current Sensitive partner is injured in a geist attack, she is paired with novice Sensitive Merrick Chambers and sent to help the small town of Ulrich with an influx of geist activity. Encountering trouble on the way, Sorcha and Merrik are rescued by rebel and Pretender to the Throne Raed Rossin. Raed is also on his way to Ulrich. It's a small enough town that he and his crew should find no problems. However, Raed is living with a family curse where any contact with geists causes him to change into a deadly beast. Needless to say, Raed is now weary of his destination. 
 Sorcha and Merrick offer protection to Raed from the geists therefore keeping his other half calm, but upon landing at Ulrich the Deacons and Pretender discover nothing is as it seems, and no telling how far the corruption is within the Order itself. 
 This book is set up from the beginning with the reader knowing that these three character's lives are going to intersect. Until that point comes, the book is a little slow going. After that point, the pace picks up and goes by quickly. Philippa Ballantine doesn't fill the book overly much with long descriptions. She very right to the point about all the scenes, and it doesn't take long for our characters, once arriving in Ulrich, to determine that something is terribly wrong. 
 Sorcha is a very strong female character. I like her for that. There is no question that she can take care of herself and others if the need arises. Where she lacks a little is that she is too overly-confident of herself and her powers, and doesn't think a novice has enough experience to offer input. She's older than Merrick by about ten years. She's been an Active in the Order going on eighteen years so she's seen her battles and she's won a lot of fights. Plus, she is literally the strongest Active in the Order, no doubt about it. I guess that's a pretty good explanation as to why she's got that confidence. But this situation turns everything upside down as far as her beliefs go. She's not used to conceding the fact that maybe she needs to play a secondary role for a while and listen to someone else's plan. 
 On Merrick's side of things, he knows Sorcha from an event in his past, but doesn't know if she remembers. He's intimidated by her because her reputation is well known. Automatically he seems to go on alert with her and tries to prove himself a little too much without considering her experience first. It's not a stretch to say that he's a compassionate character seeing as how he's a Sensitive. He is also very strong in his power, and it's great when these two finally realize their strength when they work as a team. It's something I look forward to seeing grow and change with the rest of the books in the series. 
 Of course I can't leave out Raed, who completes are little trio. He's a man that has lived with his curse his entire life as it's passed down to each heir. He's waiting for his chance to take his rightful place at the throne. Until then, he lives on his boat and off the goodwill of those who support his claim. From first meeting, there's definite chemistry between Sorcha and Raed. I really liked scenes with them together. However, I almost wish Philippa Ballantine had maybe made them dance around their attraction to one another a little bit longer. Both being strong-willed, it was funny to see them trying to get the upper hand with the other. 
 The book has a definite ending, but things with the Order are far from solved. Plenty of groundwork is laid to figure out what schemes are going on within the order. I can already tell this series is going to put our characters through a lot. Good thing, at four books, the series is complete. No waiting.