I'm pretty sure I say this about each installment of this series as I finish them, but this is hands down my favorite so far! I'm sure that a part of that is the fact that five books in we're expected to be pretty familiar with the world and characters and so the author doesn't have to spend quite so much time with obligatory explanations and background. It allowed for this book to maintain a much quicker pace than the previous ones. The battles and aftermath of those battles hit me harder in this book also, probably because I care a great deal more about each of the characters. This is the first book that made me cry. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break to read some lighter stuff and then getting back to this with Book 6 probably in a month or so.