I'm ashamed to say that I didn't finish reading this one. I'm a firm believer that if you are really not feeling it then you should stop and move onto the next one. Maybe if I had read the prequel things might have been different, as there are a lot of characters who have massive back stories, which obviously were well established in the previous book. The olde worlde language was slightly hard to follow, and I've read a lot of period books before, however I just couldn't grasp or even keep entertained enough to continue reading. Besides all else I was getting bored, some paragraphs were too waffley and I really wanted the action to kick in. The front cover is eye catching though and there is an index at the front explaining who is who. I feel that you need to read the first one to appreciate this one.