" I finally finished Empress, and boy was it a draining experience. I salut the author in begining the trilogy with a character so unlikable that it took will power to stay with her. Hekat is beautiful, charismatic, devious, courageous, ambitions, single-minded, small minded, obsessive and utterly psychopathic. She's also quite mean. But I will say she is a well drawn character, along with everyone in the book - so well drawn and so consistent that the ending, sadly enough, should not be a surprise. Karen Miller took the quintessential rags-to-riches story and turned it upsidedown - creating a protagonist that so clearly did not deserve the power she (so elegantly) wrested from the warlord. I think thats cool. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the series. "
— Manal, 2/6/2014