The plot of this one was...disappointing. The reading process was a lot slower for me this time, which I thought might've just been oversaturation from spending too much time in a single series, until I got deep enough into the story to realize very little was making sense.
Arnold and Rishe are back at home now, preparing for the wedding, which I'd honestly thought would take place in this volume, considering it's only a short time away now. Instead, they take a break to attend an opera performance, which turns into an elaborate spies-among-us plotline with the least interesting new characters in the series thus far.
Prince Dietrich's return was surprising but fun. I enjoyed seeing more of his over-the-top personality and the truth behind his relationship with Rishe. Since they'd essentially been engaged since birth, she thinks of him as a childhood friend, and holds very little resentment towards him. Some of that's likely due to the number of exceptionally interesting lives she's been able to lead since he broke off their engagement. She's significantly more mature than her ex-fiance now, although that was pretty much always true.
Rishe's backstory isn't as horrific as Arnold's, but it seems like this may be the first lifetime where she really lets herself think about how difficult and oppressive the first fifteen years of her life were. Dietrich was loud and selfish and jealous, but it was her parents who were truly at fault: the people who should've supported and encouraged her but who'd told her repeatedly that she had no value as her own person.
She was born to be the crown prince's wife, which meant she had to be perfect in all the proper wifely ways, but not too perfect, because it was unacceptable to be better than the prince at anything. So things like horse riding and swordsmanship lessons were halted once she showed too much skill. It's no wonder, then, that as soon as she got her freedom, she threw herself into learning everything and excelling in all the ways she'd never been permitted.
This element is one of the really good parts of this volume. Each so far has been set up as an opportunity for her to revisit one of her past lives and fold it into her current one. Instead of moving from her fifth (hunter/spy) to sixth (knight killed directly by Arnold's blade), we take a break in this volume for her to dip back even more, to the "crown prince's fiancee" role she'd never really emotionally dealt with.
In the process, she helps to save Dietrich from his future fate - trying to overthrow his father and failing badly - but more importantly, she truly realizes what it is that she values about Arnold and her relationship with him. And she's finally able to tell him that in the epilogue - expressing her gratitude for how much he trusts her and not only "allows" her to be true to herself, but pays attention to what it is that she wants and finds ways to help her achieve her goals. It's an incredible partnership.
With that in mind, one of the things I'd initially felt was a plot hole turned out to make a decent amount of sense. Which is to say, it was utterly absurd for Rishe to stand on a brightly lit stage, acting as bait for all the assassins in the shadows. There is absolutely no way Arnold would ever permit such an idiotic, dangerous plan, I thought. But...that's kind of the point. That within the context of this world, where training and skill allow someone at the height of their powers to identify people in an audience by "sensing their malice," or to unerringly knock away arrows flying at them, Arnold is simply showing faith in Rishe's abilities.
Still a little bit over-the-top, but I'll accept this as fun hero and heroine bonding times and let the logical bits go.
Not so with a lot of the rest, though...including that entire theatre setup to begin with.
So, the storyline now is that there's some sort of shadow power trying to manipulate things behind the scenes. They were most visible in the previous volume, with a little country trying to topple a superpower's economy by counterfeiting their money. But it turns out this has actually been going on for a while, all the way back to Rishe and Arnold meeting at her engagement-ending ceremony.
I appreciate that this series takes a lot of very specific genre tropes, like a prince throwing a public party to shame his "villainess" bride, and tries to work them backwards into a far more complex plot. Dietrich got manipulated into these actions by someone whose main goal was to pull Arnold to a small country with narrow roads where he might be more vulnerable. This explains Arnold being at the party to begin with - he'd only gone because he was suspicious and curious by such a direct and pointless invitation - and the bandits' attack on their return journey.
Still, some of those threads seem to be left hanging. For instance, Rishe had specifically pointed out that Arnold hadn't killed any of those bandits, but their fate after that was never mentioned. If Arnold was trying to track down a big foreign spies plot during that journey, he would've taken them into captivity to interrogate them, right? Did he try, and get nothing out of them?
That brings us to the present, where the renowned opera singer who faints onstage at the start of her performance, then forms a romantic attachment with the knight who carries her to the doctor, turns out to be the spy Arnold's been searching for.
Well, one of them. And...not a very good one?
I get that with the way each volume has been structured, it has to be set up for Rishe to rescue/redeem Sylvia, showing that people aren't inherently evil just because they've been caught up in bad circumstances. But so much of Sylvia's existence seemed pointless. And she just wasn't very interesting as a character.
Her introduction seems, initially, like she's a fairly mature performer, known around the world - Rishe had seen her operas before. She's known as a bit of a vixen type, but not in a bad way; she forms a lot of relationships with men she meets during her performances (on stage or off) and channels those experiences into deepening the maturity and depth of her performances. She seems very confident and experienced. She also, as it turns out, is a key figure in a spy organization rather like Raul's, with skills that are honed enough for her to trick Rishe and bypass her keen senses.
This was all pretty neat. But she very quickly devolves into a weak, crying, sit-by-the-sidelines character who falls in love with one of Arnold's knights after literally two days - "the only time she's ever truly been in love in her life" - and then accomplishes absolutely nothing while Rishe charges on stage in her place.
Maybe Sylvia was only trained in secrecy and seduction, not combat, but it was still kind of grating. I love Rishe being an extraordinary character, but it would've been nice to have another female character mixed in here who could shine in her own way, and even provide Rishe with a bit of mature guidance. The only thing they do is talk a bit about what love is, and about how nervous Rishe is about her upcoming wedding kiss. But after that, Sylvia somehow comes across as wildly inexperienced in romance, too, which is...strange. She blushes and hides her face as much as Rishe does, even though she's supposed to have seduced dozens of men around the world.
She also didn't seem to have any helpful information about the organization she was working with, either? At least, she doesn't share any of that during the long conversations where Arnold and Rishe confront her about her true role in the opera. Which...makes it truly absurd when the entire organization shows up to her opera performance to try to eliminate her so she won't share any of their big secrets.
She...would have already if she'd had any to share? And if their whole concern is "oh no, if the shadow power that hired us found out one of our agents spilled too many secrets, we'll get in big trouble"...how is this helped by sending every single one of their agents onto the opera stage to be captured????
The entire setup of this was truly absurd. Sylvia was not important enough for that big of an all-out attack, for one. Then, no matter what, you would never ever send all the members of your group into a bottleneck location. The leader, at least, would be stashed safely somewhere. It's just. It's completely and utterly illogical. And it doesn't even line up with the entirety of the previous volume, with Rishe and Raul's experience working way more effectively in a similar type of group.
And then! If they were going to try to take out their operative, why wouldn't they just, y'know, poison her again? Like they did that first night, when she collapsed on stage as a warning to fall in line? They could've very easily snuck something into her food or clothing and taken care of it without putting 20-something archers in an opera audience to fire at a singer on stage.
I get that Arnold was intentionally keeping the security checks at the door lax, but no secret spy organization is going to be stupid enough to think they can smuggle twenty people carrying bows and arrows into a theatre performance???
And why did not a single one of them realize that Rishe was very obviously not their target, once they saw her on stage, with her veil down and her unique hair color clearly on display?
And as a random sidenote, where were Dietrich's royal knights? They weren't mentioned a single time in this volume, and he seemed to be mainly wandering around the city on his own, which he would never do, first of all...even if it hadn't been very clearly mentioned before that he has twice as many knights directly protecting him as Arnold does.
There were just a lot of pretty bad gaps in this story, which made it frustrating, because up until this point, it's felt very tightly and thoughtfully plotted. This one was just a mess.
I did like finally getting a brief glimpse of Arnold's father. The terror he was able to inflict, even from a distance, was fantastic. I loved the double-whammy of Rishe instinctively trying to draw a sword to protect Arnold from the perceived threat, and Arnold's complete and utter panic over how badly that would've gone if she'd succeeded or if his father would've noticed.
The epilogue was good, too. I'm glad Rishe finally accepted her feelings and has acknowledged to herself now that she's in love with Arnold. And the kissing "practice" was handled really nicely. I'm hoping for a bit less oblivious-about-emotions blushing and embarrassment in the next book...which will maybe carry through to the wedding?
The emperor would have to be in attendance for that, right...? I'd think Rishe's parents would come, too, although I don't know if she's technically still banished and disowned and all that. I'd like to see Arnold speak to them face to face, though. His interactions with Dietrich were great.