I admit the opening scene to this one was a little rough for me; I wasn't expecting to dive right into (view spoiler)[the middle of a suicide attempt (hide spoiler)]. But fortunately that cleared up quickly and did not set the tone for the protagonist's mindset at all. From there on it was a delightful adventure, with main characters who were engaging and believable, dire threats that built on each other beautifully, and a nest of tangled family history worthy of a Wilkie Collins novel. And yet, despite the high levels of drama, none of that spilled into the romance; the one brief instance of mistreatment was confronted and resolved quickly, and as a general rule Crane and Stephen were good at communicating with each other. Which meant we didn't have to spend time on a misunderstanding plot, and instead had time for schemes and dark magic. :3 
 I had a few little quibbles with word choice -- some "larger man"/"smaller man" epithets here and there, and what felt like a little inconsistency in Merrick's voice -- but I still devoured the whole thing without coming up for air, so clearly they weren't enough to even slow me down. 
 I hope we get to see Esther on the page in a future installment; from what Stephen says about her she sounds like someone I'd happily cheer for.