In the first book the crew pulled off the heist of the century, but now they need to get paid.

The author has really improved as a writer since she began Shadow and Bone, and it shows in this book. Wheels within wheels of schemes and plots, that all seem to make sense once they come to fruition. Character development that feels natural and earned. Excellent pacing of up and down beats.

One of the few flaws of her earlier works was that you quickly learned that if a character explained a plan, that you weren't going to see any of that plan come to fruition. Now if a character explains a plan, you know it won't go off 100%, but you don't know just how far it might go wrong. Far enough to fail, or just enough to require some improvisation to make it succeed, or were there elements of the plan we didn't know about? The reader doesn't know until they read further, and there's more solid suspense as a result.

A solid addition to the Grishaverse.