This book broke me. So if this sounds appealing to you, and you read it based on my review, please don't complain afterwards. 

The start was very promising, but then there was a lot of world building and getting to know characters for like 30-50% of the book. Enough action and plot twists to keep me interested, but also very few bread crumbs of what I really wanted to read about to make me impatient. The second half is just a wild ride.
It is supposed to be YA and I recognize the typical tropes coming with a YA fantasy books. But most of them have a spin or are resolved in a new way, which I really loved. You expect things to happen, and then they do happen, but in unexpected ways to mess with your head. In fact, I truly believe, the author just wrote this book to mess with my head specifically. Especially with the ending, which makes me question everything I thought I knew about myself. 
Anyway, this book also seems a little too brutal for YA? The stakes are definitely higher than usual, and the author isn't afraid of showing it. 
The world building is interesting, and the mysteries are intriguing, but what I loved the most were the intense and intimate scenes between the characters. I held my breath so many times I lost count, tbh. Thank goodness, the sequel is coming out next month. Can't wait to get my heart ripped out and trampled on again. 

Ich hätte mit dem Buch warten sollen bis der zweite Band erschienen ist. Der Cliffhanger am Ende! 

Der erste Band sehr viel World building und man hat einiges über die Hauptcharatere gelernt. Ich fand es sehr spannend, auch durch die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven der Charaktere mehr über die Welt zu lernen. 
Will selber hat diese Welt selber gerade erst kennen gelernt, daher fand ich es auch nicht zu viel Information auf ein Mal, wenn ihm etwas erklärt wurde. 

Ich habe mit vielen gerechnet, aber nicht mit dem Twist am Ende! 

Ich hatte so gehofft, dass James aus der ganzen Sache irgendwie unbeschadet raus kommt, er ist mir sl and Herz gewachsen. Genau wie Will. Ich hoffe so sehr, dass sie es schaffen sich ihren eigenen Weg zu suchen und nicht die Geschichte wiederholen müssen.

Der zweite Band kann nicht früh genug kommen!

I was expecting to love this book as I've been very into anything Pacat has written so far, and was not disappointed! It does have all the things that make her "signature", including plots that involved big brothers, but also twisted, delicious codependent relationships that no doubt will explode in drama in the next volume. This was a fairly dark read, but one that engrossed me nonetheless! 

 Though it did have some inconsistencies and some stuff that didn’t quite make sense (still don’t know what exactly are lions), it is easy to lose yourself in the story. The plot twists had me gasping, the story is overall very well put together, the characters and their relationships are interesting and complicated in the best way, the world-building something not quite like anything I’ve ever seen. Loved it.