Loved the writing and the character development, but the plot was all over the place! I hear the next 2 books are better, so I'll probably give them a chance.

Honestly, I'm very disappointed. I could not get through the entire book; maybe I should have given it a chance, but I just couldn't bring myself to, especially not with other, better books begging me to read them. I had a bunch of problems with the story but they all boil down to the main flaw that I encountered: the writing is really unfocused. Things are described in varying levels of intensity, which was really jarring to me: for instance, I could picture Valefor, but not once was a proper description actually given to the house itself. Udo was never described beyond his fashion sense, so I couldn't picture his face. I couldn't figure out where the story wanted to go, and I didn't have the patience to stick with it while a clear direction emerged. Were we supposed to care more about Valefor, or about Flora's mother? What was the political drama trying to accomplish? If magic is banned, how could Flora get her hands on a book so easily? The storyline was jumbled, the pace was not steady, and I could not find a reason to continue reading. I wouldn't say that this was a bad book necessarily, because I feel almost sad that I couldn't get in to it, but I definitely did not enjoy it and will probably not try reading it again.

*gasp* a YA novel with excellent world-building, cool magic, relatable characters, and ABSOLUTELY NO ROMANCE?!?! how did i ever get this lucky? hopefully the next two books continue to be just as good as this one.

Flora has so many problems: managing her mad father, taking care of the house while her mother the General is busy running the military, going to school, preparing for her Catorcena celebration, and then owing to a complication with the blue butler Flora begins to fade. The world of this book is vivid and wonderful, the story is funny and exciting, and you care about the characters. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

While I enjoyed some aspects of the story, overall it was lacking in refinement. Udo and Poppy were the most interesting and compelling characters to me, despite their positions as “side characters “. The political elements created potential for a complex story. And the magic system had a good base that could potentially be developed into something really interesting.

However, everything was lacking in the end. Flora, our heroine, was annoying and I did not find her development to be interesting or believable. And there were so many threads being spun with Valefor, the politics, the Dainty Pirate, and Flora’s dreams, but they were not spun in a way that created a cohesive story that invested me emotionally. When the ending finally came I had zero emotional investment so the final twist at the end had zero reaction from me. I will not be finishing the trilogy.

I loved this book. It was weird and exciting, with the right amount of dangerous.

I had mixed feelings about this book. It felt very young for young adult. I could more consider it for the middle school age range to be honest. I quite enjoyed the plot of the book, though the main thing that bothered me was the writing and the fact that we had basically no background into the world.

I feel like if you're going to create a new world you need to explain some of the rules of the world to the readers. We immediately get immersed into Flora's world with out much explanation. I can say that part of the reason it took me so long to get through the book was confusion. I was finally able to grasp an idea of it towards the middle of the book, but there were still a few things about the world that I didn't understand. I think that could have been better explained throughout the book.

The other thing that bothered me is the writing. At first, I wondered if it was translated from another language or if the writing was intentional. But I checked and the author seemed to be American? But sometimes she uses British english and other made up words? I don't know, but it sometimes annoyed me because I wasn't sure if I had the right meaning for certain words. Obviously some words are easier like "Sandwie" is "Sandwich" but I still don't understand why that's necessary. Again, this is probably just personal preference, since I hated the Maze Runner for all their weird slang words.

Overall this is a fun book for children. Flora's family wants her to be a solider but she wants to be a ranger (which is basically a spy that can do some magic). Throughout the story she tries to live her life like a ranger by trying to save another ranger. She also has to deal with family drama along the way.

At first I almost didn't finish this book because of how much I wanted to punch a couple of the characters.
I pushed through, and found that I enjoyed the ending.

This book was delightful and fascinating. I absolutely loved the way that Wilce played with a very different kind of fantasy world-building--without giving anything away, it's definitely not the typical vaguely Northern European fantasy world. I look forward to reading the sequels. (I especially hope we eventually learn what happened to Flora Primera, but on the other hand, it would be more realistic if we didn't.)