I was surprised at how much I liked this book. The things I found irritating in the other books weren't as predominant in this book. Rose and Lissa both had their emotions (more or less) under control. There was no "spirit is making me crazy / spirit is making me angry". I also found that Rose seems to have grown up a little bit more in this book. There are still times when I think she needs to keeo her mounth shut, but there were times when she opened her mouth and I was happy that she spoke up. 
 Things with Strigoi Dimitri come to a head in this book. There were times I really felt bad for Rose. But this is where her stubborness and dislike of taking orders will come in handy. I hate it when heroines give up when things get complicated. For all of Rose's faults, she isn't one to give up lightly and that's commendable. 
 There's a lot of poilitical intrigue associated with this book. I think seeing that story through Rose's eyes there's a lot we don't know and may not fully understand. It's difficult to see what some character's motivations are, and where their loyalties lie. 
 I don't know how I feel about the fact that there's more going on behind the scenes that Rose and Co. don't know about. I guess it makes for a good mystery and with only one book left in the series, I hope everything they started with this book will get resolved in the next book (major things that is). I understand with the spin-off series Richelle Mead has mentioned that there were threads of information left open, but regardless I just hope all the big storylines leave us feeling satisfied. 
 This book leads right into the next one so you will want to make sure that you have "Last Sacrifice" handy. I'm really glad that I started reading the series after it was completed. With the open-ended way this one concludes it would have been torture waiting until the conclusion. I don't really think any of the other books go hand-in-hand the way these last two do. 
 With that I'm off to continue reading "Last Sacrifice"