Finally, this monster is tackled. XD Ok, thoughts on this book. Well, it's been a roller-coaster ride for sure. The book itself is written well I think, but it's got waaaaaaay too much filler! I think she could have cut at least 300 pages out of this & it would have been fine. 
 The historical elements are extremely well written, no problems there. Some issues I DO have with this novel though, one I'm sure readers will already know what I'm about to say. 
 The beating scene. While, in context, I can understand it, it still came out of NOWHERE for me. Jaime's character just seemed to FLIP completely and turn monstrous. It was very creepy & borderline frightening, compared to how loving she'd made Jaime seem earlier. I guess it was put there to remind the reader that this isn't modern times & that the world is alot harsher to women in this time period. I don't fault the author for including it, but Jaime's sadism during the scene was very off putting. 
 The second issue I had was the treatment of homosexuality. Again, historically I can understand why all the gay characters would be seen as evil/bad but (view spoiler)[ having the main villain be gay and brutally torture and rape Jaime towards the end made my stomach turn. I'm only letting this slide due to there being another gay character in the next book who isn't a villain. (hide spoiler)] 
 Other then that, I'd say it was an ok read. Will I be continuing? Probably. :) 
 Final rating: 3.8 stars out of 5.