The last time we saw Kaylin Neya the Chosen was rescuing an old woman named Imelda and her ghostly roommates from an evil Barrani wizard. Imelda has joined Kaylin's eclectic household, but there are still many questions about her ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Only Kaylin knows that Imelda can also command spirits because tales of necromancers are all about armies of undead, not grandmotherly women who take cookies to Elantra's police and the dragons are already nervous enough. Speaking of dragons, Bellusdeo is enraged again. As the only female dragon everyone expects her to waste no time producing more and she finally chose Emmerian as a potential mate because he was the least annoying. Unfortunately, the whole idea still drives her crazy so she attaches herself to Kaylin's continuing investigation of Imelda's situation to avoid the issue. Once again the Elements are disquieted and it seems to be related to an Ancient, aka those beings that made the worlds and various races, that was being used by the Barrani wizard as a power source. Kaylin freed it but it's power is now leeching into the world and distorting reality. Kaylin has no idea what she can do since it says it's already dead, but once again it's up to the Chosen to save the world.

There are no new plots, characters, or themes in this book. Fortunately, it was saved by providing us additional information on dragon biology and culture. To me this series is always at its best when it takes a closer look at the various sentient races in Elantra. I will only say that there is a major revelation about Bellusdeo that requires Kaylin to revisit how she saved Bellusdeo and that mistakes were made. It's not like being the Chosen came with a user manual. In fact it seems that no two Chosen used their power the same way.  Kaylin is starting to take more responsibility for her actions and attitude problem. There is also a look at Evanton's history and how he became Keeper of the Elemental Garden which was interesting. So while the plot simply revisits and continues the story lines of both Cast in Eternity (book 17) and Cast in Ruin (book 7), it also finishes more than one ongoing subplot which made it a satisfying read.

On Audible Khristine Hvam's narration was rated as 5 out of 5 stars.