I really liked this book, but I thought it did drag a little bit at times. I thought that there were quite a few scenes that could have been either cut or shortened. This book had the trend to get "stuck" once Rose arrived somewhere I felt like she was stuck there for too long. She needed to move on with some things a lot sooner. 
 I'm also getting a little tired of people "acting crazy" something is always going on to make people act strange. In the first book it was Lissa using too much spirit without realizing it. In Shadow Kissed it was Rose being angry because she was taking all the dark energy from Lissa. In this book it was Lissa being compelled into acting distructive. I would really like for the next book to focus on something that is not some outside force causing our characters to act unlike themselves. 
 I enjoyed seeing where Dimirti grew up. I liked learning more about his life and family. I really like how Richelle Mead incorporated flashbacks of Rose and Dimitri together that we haven't seen before. Scenes that took place in between books. It was a good reminder of who Dimirti used to be because when we see the real Dimitri in the book, like Rose, we really want him to be the exception to the Strigoi rule. We want him to not be evil. I thought that Dimitri provided the perfrect foil to Rose. She did really grow up in this book (even though until the very end she was claiming that she didn't know where her life was going). In the first book if faced with having to kill Dimitri she wouldn't have been able to. Even though she still hesitated the first time she got the job done in the end (or so she thought). 
 I like the twist at the end. I think at this point it's really difficult not to know that it was coming. I do wonder if I would have still known it was coming if I read the story when it first came out. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, I hope Rose continues to grow.