I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't re-read Ring. I bought it at some point and then misplaced it, so I don't remember it nearly as well as the others (which is also why I managed to forget all about it when quantifying the romances earlier >.<) I really want to re-read it now, so I'll have to try and find my copy next time I visit my parents, or buy it again.

I would love for the next book to be about Wilhelmina. We get a bit more of her in Shalador's Lady at least, but I can't shake the sense that she has a story we haven't read yet. (I suppose if it never gets told, that's what fic is for.)

On another spectrum of female agency in these, have I mentioned how awesome it was that Jaenelle, as a person, got to add her own dreams to the web for Witch? I love that, because it makes her more than a conduit for everyone else's hopes and desires -- she gets to define herself ultimately. That's so cool.

I'd agree that we've only seen dark-jeweled WPs, really (even the main ones in Cassidy's court are dark, aren't they?), and since dark jewels tend to mean greater extremes of behavior it's difficult to say that "all WPs are like x" right now.

The move in the last two books to show a greater spectrum of society really helped the series as a whole, imo. I also really loved that Cass had only descended one level in power when she made her Offering. That's fairly uncommon among the Blood we know -- Lucivar is the only other one I can think of.