Sarcastic characters in a straight fantasy, another couple who are obviously going to fall in love. It's nice to see characters come around from previous books with different levels of engagement.

This one did feel like there were more moments of "the heroes felt they were going to die and said goodbye to each other" without actually feeling darker. I haven't worked out if that is on purpose or not. Second one is probably still my favourite.

Nothing happens in this without foreshadowing or a trope, so if that irritates you, well, you probably didn't finish the others.