MATHOS was a bit up and down for me and I didn't enjoy the romance as much as the previous books in the series. However, Jennie Lynn Roberts is a fantastic story teller and this was emotional, well paced, and the writing flowed so well. I really liked Mathos as a side character in earlier books but he's quite grumpy in this one and I missed the flirty charmer that we'd known before. I did like Lucilla and her resilience in the face of her sheltered upbringing and while she makes some mistakes, she owns them and admits when she's wrong. She has some great character growth through the book.

In this case the romance was a little too angsty for me personally and I felt like Mathos made some big mistakes way too close to the end of the book. Not just with Lucilla but also with the Hawks. Mathos was his own worst enemy in this book and it got to be too frustrating for me to fully enjoy their romance.

Content Warning: mild torture and violence