I'm glad I didn't give up on this series after the first two books. The second book was already improving, but the plot was extremely slow moving and Graves really got on my nerves. I'm glad the series is coming into its own in this third book, where we finally have more action on all fronts. I prefer Christophe much more than Graves, although I feel like the romantic development has been pretty lacking for both. Dru's relationship with Graves is still mostly governed by the same old "I feel safe, it's like coming home, etc." while Christophe's past relationship with her mother and age makes it a bit creepy. It's cool that he's intense, but so far there isn't any real reason for him to like Dru THAT much except for a list of pretty suspect reasons: 1) she's her mother's daughter and 2) she's svetocha. After all, they haven't really had a chance to interact or even talk much. Plus, the way Dru constantly references her Dad to describe Christophe's leadership style, tone, or mannerisms is...uncomfortable, really. 
 I guess that's still my main problem with this series. A lot of the writing is more telling than showing, and the author tends to really try to hit you over the head with the telling, too. It gets repetitive if you're reading Books 1-3 over about three days. I think I read about Dru's abandonment issues six times already and Graves' character actually seems to be less based on how he acts/what he does than on Dru's various labels for him - instant understanding, instant deep connection, instant feeling of safety, and so on. As the series progresses, I like Graves less because his characterization doesn't seem to progress much, except in the way of being more macho now that he's a "prince" instead of a misfit.