OK, so much as I love the characters, I have to admit I was a teensy bit bored throughout most of this book.

Alexia is very heavily pregnant in this latest instalment but she does not let the infant inconvenience get in the way of her usual antics, investigating a warning by a nearly demented ghost that an attemt on the Queen's life is being planned. Alexia and Connall are completely reconciled with barely a mention of his inexcusable (in my view) behaviour in the previous book, the vampires are continuing with their attempts to assassinate the unborn child (the nature of which still remains largely mysterious) and, by proxy, Alexia until an ingenious (although, personally, I thought it was rather crappy) solution to appease them is proposed which leads Lord and Lady Maccon to move into Lord Akeldama's closet and Madame Lefoux appears unusually distressed and preoccupied.

I thought the pacing of this book, overall, was very slow. The plot line took forever to get anywhere and the things that were revealed about Alexia's father seemed somewhat irrelevant and inconsequential. By this point in the series, I was kind of hoping we would learn more about Alexia's soulless state, the reason why Floot keeps so conspicuously schtum about Mr. Tarabotti and the nature of the child. However, no such luck.

I was also somewhat taken aback by some of Alexia's decisions and actions. Her rushing to the aid of Countess Nadasdy who has tried to get Alexia killed on countless occasions felt especially unrealistic.

The cover deserves a particular mention as well, in that I cannot believe how excruciatingly awful it is. The lady on the cover looks half bold and dressed for a Christmas panto performance. It really was not helpful to have that ridiculous image imprinted on one's mind when reading the book.