This is the third book in the Hundredth Queen Series, so read The Hundredth Queen and The Fire Queen first :)
Kalinda is still far from home, desperately in search of peace but still so far from it. Now, not only is a warlord ruling in her palace, but a demon disguised as her deceased husband, Rajah Tarek, has mustered HER army to take the palace and rule over bhuta and humankind alike. With her own powers being changed and stifled by the demon's icy fire, Kalinda almost doesn't even know herself. Who can she ally with that will help her to defeat a seemingly immortal demon? Will she ever find a way to be by Deven's side without terror of one kind or another always hanging over her head?
I'm of two minds again. The plot does move forward. The world building and folklore/religion/legend is expansive. Sometimes so much so that I just couldn't follow it. For whatever reason, I had a hard time fully wrapping my brain around the whole vendetta of the demons. I eventually just had to let it go and believe they had their reasons - I couldn't keep the genealogy and stories of the Gods straight enough to have it all settle in and make sense. I want more from the romance, truthfully. Sometimes Deven feels melodramatic and juvenile in a way that grated on me. Yes, I sensitivity is good but begging with your hands together "as if in prayer" just doesn't ring true to the soldier he's made out to be. Despite that, though, I did care about how it all turned out. Even if in a huge battle I had to read sentences over three, four times to try and understand whaaattt? How did that happen? I think why I keep reading is that I can appreciate the grand scheme of the story - the palace with its rani and courtesans, the temple of the sisterhood with its wards and sister warriors, all the other lands with their people and their specific strengths and histories. Sometimes the nitty gritty of the writing drives me crazy but I've come this far, I'm going to read the dang fourth book and see it out.
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