I had less patience for the slow build up in this than I did for The Thief. That being said, I did still enjoy the denouement. (Thanks, high school French class!) I think my patience for fictional political machinations is shorter now that I'm thinking more about the implications of real-life political machinations. 
 Some spoiler-y thoughts ahead... 
 (view spoiler)[Okay, friends, let's get real about this. I never found myself fully on board with the Attolia/Gen romance. Back before I had even considered reading the series, I figured this would be the book where The Thief and The Queen got together. The third book is called The King of Attolia, so story-wise, it makes sense that's where it was headed. And then I got to this book and Attolia freaking chops off Gen's hand in, like, the first twenty pages or whatever and I thought the book was going to take a different turn. At one point I had myself convinced that Gen was going to have Attolia killed and that's how he would somehow take over the throne? Beats me. But based on my original theory, I wasn't too surprised that the romance became a thing and I can buy that Gen had some sort of hopeless crush on the beautiful queen. Ugh, yes, we get it, she's pretty. (Sidebar: Eddis is my favorite and I don't even mean that in a shippy sort of way between her and Gen. I just think she's the coolest.) Anyhow, so I got to thinking, "What if Gen and Attolia's genders were swapped? How would I feel about their romance?" The answer is not great. You'd have a plucky little girl thief and a handsome, yet cold king who commits an atrocious act of violence against his future wife. And then she'd stay hopelessly in love with him until she wears him down enough to convince him of their courtship and the potential power that would bring in court. I would super not be okay with that and I'm not really okay with it for Gen and Attolia, either. So I feel weird, though I'm really excited for The King of Attolia to see the aftermath. (hide spoiler)] 
 {3.5 stars rounded up}