Had to rate this at 3 stars, one fewer than volume 1, because it was rather a repeat in the sense that a lot of text is expended on minutiae until the last 50 or so pages when we get a tour de force of angst, suffering and hopelessness, just as at the end of volume 1. 
 As in the first volume, there is a frustrating amount of discussion among Fitz and his friends about Regal's evil but how no one can do anything to stop it due to lack of proof. King Shrewd eventually acknowledges Regal's perfidy, but far too late to prevent him triumphing. It does also strain the suspension of disbelief that everyone, apart from a handful of people, can't see what Regal is up to and how dangerous. Even when the Coastal Dukes realise they are being abandoned to the raiders, they are unbelievably restrained 
 The series is well written but very downbeat and I just wonder what Fitz is going to be put through in volume 3, given the impossible position he and the Six Duchies are left in.