What just happened? I-I can't believe it. Juliet Marillier, you mean, mean lady! 
 Okay, c'mon, breath in... breath out... It's okay. (No, it's not. *Sniff*) 
 Anyway... After reading (and being quite disappointed in) Shadowfell, I was a bit nervous to pick up the sequel. Luckily I was once more lost in a Celtic-inspired world with a strong female protagonist and plenty of strong female supporting characters. Once again, Marillier has written a book with characters girls can actually look up to. I'm grateful for this, because in the first book Neryn was harder to appreciate or look to as strong. 
 The plot thickens, the characters grow, and I'm really curious as to what's going to happen next! 
 This book wasn't perfect. Things seemed too easy occasionally for Neryn. Maybe not the traveling, but her actual work was pretty much handed to her on a silver platter. For the rebels themselves, however, things are not easy and hard things happened. People died. Plans were ruined. And a cliff-hanger was dangled in front of my nose. 
 I don't appreciate that, by the way. Cliff-hangers are most decidedly uncool. 
 But... I'll definitely read the next book.