3.5 
 This book surprised me. It was much better written than I thought it would be, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Kess was unusually tolerable for a YA heroine. I never could quite get over the name "Cormac," but I suppose that's not too important in the long run. 
 The story moved along at a decent pace. The story occasionally switched to Sek's point of view, which effectively showed the reader how mentally unbalanced he was and how he justified his actions. I really wasn't sure about the whole brother-with-an-unnatural-infatuation-with-his-sister thing, but the book made it work. Sek had his reasons for doing what he did and he believed that he was doing what was best for his clan and his sister. The author did a good job of expressing Sek's convictions, which makes that part of the story solid and makes it work in a way that Sebastian and Clary (Mortal Instruments) just didn't. 
 The dialogue was clever and the characters were likable. (Well, except for Sek, but that's the point...) I liked the book enough to want to read the next one to follow the characters' journeys, but it's not going to be next on my to-read list.