Elisa continues to be a memorable and likeable protagonist. Her life is difficult as queen, even more so because she's the bearer of the Godstone. She didn't succeed all the time. The best part of the book is seeing her perseverance and hard work, and even her faith in God in the midst of danger and uncertainty. 
 This book is full of twists and turns and just flew by so quickly. It so did not feel like a 400 page book. Within the first few pages, things started moving along. Unexpected things kept happening, including several assassinations. Rae Carson did an amazing job of making me care for Elisa and those around her. Though I knew some characters aren't going to die (like Elisa), I still feared for their lives as if they were real people. 
 Then there's the romance! After hearing so much about Elisa and Hector, I'm a little bit disappointed. Hector is a great character, noble and honorable, and also stoic. If he wasn't the main love interest but a side character, he'd be the one that's completely overlooked. I enjoyed the slow romance and watching Elisa fall in love and reading both of them fighting it because they both have to marry for the good of the country. I just wished Hector was more expressive, but if you're a fan of a subtle kind of romance where feelings are shown and not declared with flowery language, then I think you'll really enjoy this. I cheered like there was no tomorrow at the end when Elisa found the courage to follow her love. 
 My main gripe with the book is the ending and is what kept it from being 5 stars. Like the previous book, there was a lot of buildup to the climax. You wait the entire book for Elisa to get to the end of her journey. You wait for the fireworks, instead you get tiny little sparklers. Where was my epic fight? Epic something! The climax ended in 2-3 pages and I kept flipping back and forth on my Kindle trying to see if I missed something. Also, Elisa's decision aggravated me to no end! I understood her reasoning, but her choice concerning Storm made me feel like I wasted my time reading the last 100 pages of the book!