I realised about halfway through this book that I was going to have to give it 2 stars. This series has definitely lost its shine for me. Maybe I would have been better off listening to the audiobook instead of reading the paperback, as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s narration is always worthwhile. Unfortunately the printed version failed to engage my attention. There is too much to remember from the previous books, and I just don’t have that good a memory. I felt like I was missing so much of what was going on, and references were flying over my head. There seemed to be a lot of padding in the story (and for a series about wizards and fae folk, there was way too much mundane detail). I didn’t even enjoy the regular characters the way I used to. Such a shame.