Oooh, yeah. The one chronologically after Shards of Honor, "Barrayar," is amazing like that... in that things look their darkest, but THEN it's overcome in a way that makes me toss the book down and throw my fists in the air and cheer aloud. Her characterizations always do that to me; adversity makes the characters stronger and when something else terrible happens they're all "this is nothing, bitch, just you watch out" and OMG I love those books.