I was a bit worried about this book for two reasons. First, Alec and Seregil are separated for most of the book and second, many reviews said that this book was not nearly as good as the preceding three. However, it was a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed learning more about Alec and Seregil's background and meeting someone really important from Seregil's past. The separation (physcial, not relationship/emotional) was really well done and left me not able to put the book down.