Zarq is determined to overcome her lowly origins and gender to become a dragonmaster's apprentice and ultimately a dragonmaster. In a world where women are viewed as they sometimes are in conservative religious cultures in our own world, this is beyond presumptuous. But to Zarq it is the only way she can create a place of safety to heal the childhood scars of having her home and family ripped apart. Not that it's going to be easy.

Aside from the societal roadblocks and resentment of those around her, there is the problem of her mother's haunt - an obsession made manifest, that may have saved her life at times, but is also determined to drive her down another path entirely.

Sex and violence, often together, are constant undercurrents in this story, with bestiality involving dragons a major thread. For example, a woman opening herself to cunnilingus by a dragon not only enjoys an almost unbearable (and at times fatal) ecstasy from the destructively addictive venom coating the dragon's tongue but also opens herself to communion with the dragon's mind. Disgusted as most are by the thought of "the ritual", that communion is also sought as a source of power.

This is not an easy read, and definitely not a book for everyone. But if you are fascinated by the darker side of human nature and the things it drives people to do to each other, along with the ways humans strive to rise above that darkness, you may well enjoy this unusual read. Not to my taste, but unquestionably it's a matter of taste rather than a bad book. Also, despite this being the middle book in a series, the author does a good job of making it stand on its own if you haven't read the first.