** spoiler alert ** 
 3.5 stars 
 Where is My Vlad? The character I was looking forward reading about in every night huntress book series? 
 Vlad wasn't as edgy as I wanted him to be, I think he has lost some of his luster that made many of us readers fall in love with him in all the other books - the fierce, powerful price of darkness with the most brutal dark humor was gone. I saw the same thing happen with Mencheres. I think because Vlad and Mencheres had such a powerful presence and were very unique, Frost was afraid they would take over their books and the lead female character would be lost. The problem is they were overcompensating and these very unique male characters were mellowed and as a result lost the edge they had. I really hope she stops leashing Vlad and let him have his say just as she has done with Bone in Cats books. The reason Cat and Bone work is because they are both very powerful on their own, we the readers can see he is not going to sit quiet if he has anything to say whereas I felt Vlad's mouth was duck taped in this book. 
 I thought Vlad's character was kind of pushed back to allowed Leila to change and become more assertive and less wishy washy. I actually enjoyed this new badass, ruthless Leila toward the end. Vlad needs a partner as cruel as him or he will lose the respect others have for him. My only problem was that majority of this book was about Leila and god I wanted to bitchslap her few times, her insecurities and sometimes her teenagery attitude were just too much, like when she was presented with the ring at the dinner. I was like what the heck Vlad is seeing in her? I am actually glad he held off on the Vampire mating recognition ceremony. 
 I really hope we don't have to be around the freak/carnival lifestyle any more. It deters from these books. Also, Cat's character fell really flat, she had no personality when she basically body guarded Leila. I really expected to see some interaction between Cat and Vlad in this book and there was none. He had such a big part in Cat's books that what feels like avoidance is not realistic. I understand this series is written in Leila's pov but we could have seen some lecture by Cat or some communication Leila could have seen in her dreams or when she was spying on Vlad especially when Shrapnel was involved since he was also part of few of Cat's books as Vlad's most trusted bloodline.