leons1701's review against another edition
3.0
Not sure why, but this feels like the weakest entry in the series so far (however, I haven't read A Mankind Witch yet, so who knows). Maybe it's the overlap with "Much Fall of Blood", maybe it's that the new characters just aren't compelling, maybe it's the lack of Eric, Manfred and Francisca. Still, being the weakest entry in a series like this one isn't exactly a huge condemnation.
There's not much character development here, but then this is the fourth go round for these folks so they're pretty well established. Benito did most of his maturing in "A Rough Magic", this is just polishing some of the remaining rough edges a bit. Likewise, Marco's main arc was handled in the first book. And maybe that's the problem, nobody is really being developed here. The closest we come is Antimo Bartelozzi's relationship with Hecate but I don't see much change to his character there. Hecate is the one undergoing the real change, but she's a secondary character. Significant, yes, but only in how she interacts with the main characters.
There's not much character development here, but then this is the fourth go round for these folks so they're pretty well established. Benito did most of his maturing in "A Rough Magic", this is just polishing some of the remaining rough edges a bit. Likewise, Marco's main arc was handled in the first book. And maybe that's the problem, nobody is really being developed here. The closest we come is Antimo Bartelozzi's relationship with Hecate but I don't see much change to his character there. Hecate is the one undergoing the real change, but she's a secondary character. Significant, yes, but only in how she interacts with the main characters.
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