There was a point in the second book where Olsen's style of writing went from being charming to being tedious and it continues to go downhill in this third installment. It's like molasses: in small doses sweet and lovely but in excess leaves you drowning in verbosity.

Most of the attempts at humor, especially in the overabundance of asides, fell flat for me and the occasional chuckle that did escape me just wasn't enough. Every chapter was spent talking in circles about the same things: "How much bigger will Fitz get?" "Whatever shall Miss Percy do once this adventure is over?" "Miss Percy simply isn't an adventuress; she's far too old and tired for all this!" The first 70% of the book is spent spinning wheels and when we finally get a conclusion it's rushed and leaves so much to be desired.

How we went from Belinda--the pretty-faced, petulant teenager who somehow charms the entire city with a wave of her hand-- and the Regent Prince--a literal prince who has clearly never been told no, wants the eggs for himself, and has otherwise zero personality-- being the unstoppable antagonists to rolling over and letting Miss Percy do whatever she wants I don't know. The fact that the Regent Prince was so willing to let Miss Percy just leave with the dragons and the remaining eggs baffles me. All she did was sit in a ballroom for a week and then coincidentally be in the same room as the eggs when they hatched. Now you expect me to believe that this completely obtuse, self-centered regent is going to just let her walk away? What happened to banishing them all to the countryside?

All this being said, if you've been a fan of the series up through the first two books then I do think this is a worthwhile read. It's an adequate conclusion to the series and the epilogue is quite sweet.