4 stars only because of Faithful- not so much the death, although that would have been nice if it 1) didn't happen and 2) wasn't practically glossed over, but more because of the epilogue's treatment of Faithful vs Liam. Alanna has known Faithful most of her life at this point. Alanna had known Liam for a relatively short span of time. No offense to Liam (I liked the character) but I think more than a paragraph could have been devoted to Faithful's passing (and that paragraph wasn't even DIRECT), especially when there is a lot more on Alanna's grief over Liam. I just.. yeah. I'm a cat person so I suppose this is the obvious response from me, but still.


So MINUS that one thing, this was a fantastic end to the Song of the Lioness quartet, and I am both super sad to leave this part of the Tortall experience and excited to see what else Pierce has to bring! Reading "Wild Magic" next. :)