The ending of this epic series was truly amazing! Gifted teen shapeshifter Cassel Sharpe is once again, torn between doing the right thing, or siding with his decidedly shady magically-gifted criminal family. In Black Heart, Cassel has gained fairly good control over his transformation magic but spends a lot of time stressing out over his work as a double-agent. 
 His long-time unrequited love, Lila, has officially joined the magical mafia (with the tattoos to prove it) and in the meantime, he's been offered a very sweet deal with a witness protection program - provided he can deliver a couple of big-time mafiosi hold-outs to justice. Conspiracies and backstabbing abound as criminals and politicians vie for control over the "curseworkers" - the small segment of the population with magical ability who are hated and distrusted by everyone. 
 I love how Cassel really comes into his own in this book. One of the things he says is, "Now I know why people are afraid of transformation workers. Now I know why they want to control me. Now I get it. I can walk into someone's house, kiss their wife, and eat their dinner. I can lift a passport at the airport and twenty minutes later it will seem like it's mine. I can be a blackbird staring in a window. I can be a cat creeping along a ledge. I can do anywhere I want and do the worst things I can imagine, with nothing ever to connect me to those crimes. Today I might look like me, but tomorrow I could look like you. Tomorrow, I could be you. Hell, I'm scared of myself right now." 
 I can't quite decide if this is a "good guys don't always finish last" or an instance where the bad guys win, or a bit of both, since Cassel has always been this fish out of water in his criminal family. I don't want to spoil anything, but I can say, after having been through so much, Cassel finally does get a much deserved respite.