John

This series is one of my favorite fantasy series. I would suggest that you pick this up and endure through the doldrums because it has a somewhat slow start.

This is the fourth book in the series, but only the second put on audible. I've only listened to Secrets of the Demon in this series, and I liked this book better than Secrets. I really enjoyed this book, especially how demons were used to attempt to solve the crime. I also liked that I was able to predict before hand who was actually at fault for the murders. Overall, if you want to listen to a good mystery or urban fantasy this is a good choice. I would recommend this book to friends.

I would recommend this book to a friend, if that friend has read at least one of the previous two books in the series. I hope that the author continues with this series because I am hooked; she's doing a very good job of incorporating real world events into a fantasy setting.

What I liked: character development of Jane and Vincent. Melody also had her moments as well. About halfway through this book I finally understood why Vincent is such a debbie downer, which was very rewarding.

What I didn't like: I would have liked more glamour. One of the reasons why I find this series so fascinating is the whole 'Jane Austin with Magic' thing. In this story the glamour used by the coldmongers moved the plot off screen and rarely on screen. The author has developed a beautiful form of magic and it's a shame that so much of the coldmonger glamour was off screen.

Net total, this was a good book because it brought more emotional depth to all the main characters.

I like to read mystery books and a fantasy books. This was a good hybrid of the two. My chief complaint is that the first two books were not available on audible. My second complaint is that this book seemed to be a 'chickflick' type of story, which as a man I found to not be as approachable as possible. I did enjoy the hard-criminology aspects of the novel, which were somewhat unique in my experience. I'll try more in this series, but I'm not too hopeful.

This is the third book in a trilogy by Mr Sanderson. I enjoyed it, even though it felt like Well of Ascention Part 2.

Unlike the first book in the series, this is not a regency era romance novel. I don't generally like books with strong romance components, so I found this story to be better than the first in the series. I liked the regency setting and the Napoleonic references.

I enjoy this series and this plot was good. My problem was that the editing job for the audiobook was below average. I noticed more than fifteen mistakes.

Bujold writes two types of books: Romances and dramas. This falls in the latter category. If you are new to the series, do not start here. I suggest you start at either Shards of Honor, Warriors apprentice, or Memory because these three books start large arcs of character development.
For Cryoburn in particular I was not driven to tears (either of sadness or laughter). Comparing this fact to other books by this author, this is not a good thing. For me, this fact goes to show that this novel had less emotional resonance compared with Paladin of Souls, Civil Campaign, or either Shards or Barrayar.
So while this book did not have the particularly intense moments, I felt that the world building and decent plot made up for it.
Also, I would have liked if Ekaterin did something. After being a main character for two whole novels, Bujold has dropped her like a hot potato. From the start I felt that Ekaterin was kinda bland, but by the end of Campaign she had grown on me. It's a pity she never got more depth.

If you are new to the series, this is potentially a good place to start if you don't want to start with book one.
If you are returning to the series, I don't see why you are bothering to read reviews. This is a very good series and (in my opinion) this book is good, equaling and possibly exceeding my other favorites Dead Beat and Ghost Story.
Specifically about this book, much like Changes, things change. We start to learn the scope of the Black Council. The ending was very, very well done. I felt bad for the antagonist, which is to say I empathized with him/her/it. Finally for the good parts, I feel Butcher finally allowed Mab to show her less-murdery side, and he sold it well.
One of the initial bad things I noticed was that Butcher didn't really set up well the ending. He could have done more for-shadowing.

Enjoyable. However, it can retread previous novels of hers. I would suggest that a friend reads this.