Even though I did like the first book, Storm Born for its insane camp, this series is for sure the weakest series that Richelle Mead has written. And this is definitely the weakest book in the Dark Swan series. The world-building in the previous books always seemed to take a backseat to the smart dialogue and the hot and wild sexyfuntimes but I had always been agreeable to that because the Richelle Mead is so good at writing the latter points. Unfortunately Shadow Heir consisted of mostly the inane melodramatic dramas of Eugenie and the gentry world. There was fun and quick dialogue but there was little pleasure in the words coming out of characters that were acting so irrational and... stupid. Though the behavior of the characters in the series (Eugenie especially) have always been absurd so that's not really much of a surprise. Finally, (view spoiler)[there was only ONE sex scene (with Dorian). And it only lasted like two paragraphs. WTF I AM DISAPPOINT. (hide spoiler)]