It took the author eight years to put this together, and I’m so happy she took her time. It is so apparent that the background and world building is beyond the majority of YA. There’s even a website dedicated to the realms and a massive glossary at the back of the book with tons of additional information. As this is a debut novel, there were plot points and dialogues that could have used additional polishing, but it still didn’t take away from the overall book. I really, really, really enjoyed this one and was so bummed when I realized it may be years and years until I can see what happens next in the story.

Too political

I was so excited to start reading this fantasy; based on the premise, the world building and plot sounded so unique. The prologue and first few chapters ended up being the best part of the book for me.

The novel is told from three different characters' points of view and with the exception of Aina, I felt I was never given any reason to care about these characters, and eventually even Aina lacked my empathy. Each character came from a different level of society and had made stereotyping decisions about the others parts of society based only on what their leaders told them. This led to political, heavy themes that just aren't for me.

The world building as far as the setting goes was wonderful and vivid, but the magic system always felt out of my reach of understanding. I wish more had been done to explain how it worked.

The pacing for a fantasy novel, even if it is the first in a duology or series, plodded. So much training! Months of repetitive sparring. I needed more diverse action that pushed the plot along. ( )