Praise

This book is a great start to a series by a debut author that does not read like a debut. You won't have to worry about badly edited text or disjointed choppy writing. It has a great flow switching POVs between the main characters.

The world building is really well thought out and complex but because it's revealed over the course of the book, it avoids the overly heavy and usually convoluted info dump that many fantasy books suffer from. Overall, I liked the world and the magic system is interesting to learn. While there are some cool powers and some characters that can wield powerful tools, there is a cost to using it, so none of it seems easy. The plot seems simple at first but as the chapters go on more complexity and nuance comes in. The characters as well are not 2 dimensional cardboard cutouts. You get to know them and their slowly. They were not the conventional and overused RH leads. Each has their own issues both personal and species centered. There is something about how Mina is written that makes you want to know her. I love that the author made her very very morally charcoal grey. I wonder how that will come to the front again in the following books (I just don't buy her new found conscience). The guys are all likable and definitely have their own personalities. There are a lot of questions left hanging on this first cliffie, I will be reading the next book for sure. This author is one to watch, can't wait to see what she's going to put these peeps through.