Here’s the thing: I had pretty high expectations going into this book. It had a heist/assassination set up. It had five dangerous individuals, each with something to hide. Each character had their own reasons for agreeing to commit the highest act of treason by killing the “god king.” It had promise!

However….Almost fifty percent of this book is just the various characters traveling to MEET each other. They don’t cross paths until we’re quite far in. I feel like Sora had the most depth to her out of all of them, and her POVs were the ones I felt myself enjoying. We’re told that Mikhail and Euyn have a history and are lovers, but there’s literally no chemistry besides what we’re told they have. Royo and Aeri’s relationship has no sparks, it just happens.

I did enjoy the twist! Which I didn’t see coming. I just feel like the relationships here were forced, the first half of the book was a filler episode of a shonen anime, and Royo saying “ain’t” and “don’t” all of the time pulled me out of the story too much.

Obviously I will still be tuning in for book two, where I hope things will be a little more fleshed out.