By now I think everyone knows that I am a Drarry fan. I liked this book better than the first (reparations); there were just so many little, good things about this book that really resounded with me. I loved the strong presence of Narcissa, and Harry's hilarious attempts to woo her over with wrongly pronounced Latin phrases ( 'archaic pureblood crap' ) and it's in this book that we see the true development of Harry and Draco's remarkably rocky romance. They're both shit at communication, they're both stubborn fools and they're just so fucking perfect together. It's so heartwarming to see them so domesticated, with these little Saturday and Sunday rituals, with their little private phrases (where 'yes' is practically synonymous to 'i love you') and it just feels so realistic.Rather than having a grand plot, this book is really just them in their ordinary life with their little dramas and relationship mishaps. The thing that really pushes this book to the 4.5 are these special little aspects of the book like the symbolic piece of string, pera gratia, Thursday Pity Flapjack Tradition... but as a book as a whole, it's probably not as strong as I would've liked.
It's a wonderful book, but not one I'd be demanding you to read at cyber gunpoint.
Rating: vaguely 4.5 wonderful stars.