Between 3.75 & 4 stars 
 Book 1 of a four book series. There is quite a bit of setting the stage, introducing the world and characters here. 
 I really liked the world. You have ghosts ("geists") who prey on the living, and the Order is tasked with trying to protect the people from this menace. There is a complicated political scene, with an Emperor from another land and the Pretender to the Throne, a man whose family has lost their kingdom, and are also saddled with a horrible curse. There's betrayals, conspiracies, and someone is up to Very Bad Things. 
 My favorite part, though, was that the main character is so different from what I usually read. Sure, she's got some snark, swagger, and is VERY powerful, but she's also facing more than a bit of bitterness for how her life has turned out. See, this isn't some twenty year old making her way in the world. Sorcha is on the back end of thirty. She's in a frustrating, emotionally-barren marriage to her partner. She is battle-hardened, a hot head, she's seen things that would drive others past the edge of sanity. She knows she will likely not survive to old age, and has an addiction to cigars (her job will likely kill her before those do). She is frustrated by the bureaucracy in the Order. The idealism of youth died a long time ago, but she still holds on to the core beliefs she trained under, because without those, she's got nothing. 
 Then her husband/partner is seriously injured, she's stuck with a new partner who is more than he seems, and she's about to drop into her worst nightmare. 
 I focus a lot on Sorcha, because she is really the driving force behind the bulk of the action, but it is a tale told from the POV of Sorcha, her new partner Merrick, and Raed, the Pretender to the Throne (it's all 3rd person). They form a very interesting alliance and I'm looking forward to where it goes from here. 
 Any detractions to the story for me, are more in just that there is so much going on, and the tale is definitely unfinished (there's 3 more books for that). Some parts sped by, some parts I had to re-read (this happens sometimes when the narrative follows one character for a while, then jumps to what another character is doing). I still enjoyed it, and I'll be reading the next one. 
 Slightly spoilerish note: there is infidelity in this book, so if that is one of your "absolutely cannot cross the line things that you can't read about and still enjoy the story", be warned. For me, this isn't a Romance. It's a Fantasy that has some romance in it, and even if I don't agree with all of the decisions the characters make, they were true to character, so I can accept it. As always, your mileage may vary.