Here is another book in this quiet little series that manages to keep me flipping the pages and staying up reading in bed late at night. I expected this book was going to resolve a couple of elements of the plot lines in the series - I thought Alec was going to get the girl at the end of the day, and I thought he would be the king of the Dominion when all was said and done.

Well, the book took some twists and turns, and didn't go where I expected in either case, and it's left those plot lines open and unpredictable now, so I'll have to read the next book to find the answer.

Alec took care of healing Noranda, and that was expected, but the surprising friendships he picked up in Stronghold were a nice reversal of expectations, although the mysterious disappearance scene obviously foreshadows something in the next book.

Then he returns to Oyster Bay, and has the expected reunion scene with Bethany, except somehow it doesn't work out, and the small personal dynamics of the meeting are well-described to let the reader know how the two manage to miscommunicate.

Finally there's the march to the war, and the three elements - the surprising turn with the lacertii leader, the fling with Imelda (maybe too strong a word) and then the apparent surrender of all powers at the end of the book.

The plot kept me going and the book left me hanging! I'm ready for the next one.