This Rough Magic

b This Rough Magic by Lackey, Flint, and Freer: Well, Benito went a bit crazy.  Not that I blame him because I'm kind of angry at Maria for her choice at the end of Shadow of the Lion.  I thought Benito was really starting to pull it together and would have been great . . .  Well, anyway.  Maria chose to marry someone safe and uninvolved (i.e. not Benito), which is sad because you know from page 1 of this book that this husband will surely die, so you don't want to like him.  (That is not really a spoiler because it is SO obvious, even if precisely when he's going to die is up in the air).

It's horrible for me as a writer/reader because I know he needs to die because Maria and Benito are frickin' destined to be together, and I feel bad about that because he really is a nice guy, and then when he did die, I was sad but also happy.  It's complicated.  And not really a spoiler.

The location for this chapter of the story is Corfu; there's a new ancient land power lurking in the background, Maria has a baby, and you do find out whose it is.  Other highlights include a character unexpectedly falling in love (and falling really hard), betrayal, a siege, and terrible and evil people doing very bad things.