Brilliant. So painstakingly brilliant.

I dnfed this book about 2 years ago. I enjoyed the beginning immensely but I lost my interest as soon as the war started. Let me tell you, I was completely wrong. 

Let me start off with Rin. An intelligent, stubborn, absolutely fierce young woman. I love her character, in some aspects she reminds me of Azula from Avatar the last air bender. She is driven with such hate and anger that it fuels her actions. In some ways, I even relate to her myself. She craves revenge so bad she is willing to burn down entire countries to do so. I love it. I love how she is written. She has her weaknesses and she has those who she idolizes. She has those she hates with such force and those she would put herself in harms way for. Rin has incredible depth.

I loved reading about her time at Singuard. Her emotional hatred for Nezha and the drive she had to succeed was written so well. When she pledged Lore I was so excited. I love Jiang and completely agree with him, she has let out a force she cannot put back. I’m so excited to watch her burn.
I’m reading this book and all I see is a brilliant villain in the making, I love it. This book set up exactly what I want from a series, a good political intrigue, an amazingly written culture, and a beautifully set up villain. 

I also loved hating Altan. I didn’t like him from the very beginning, mostly because he dragged Rin on. Rin was his play thing, and still is, although now she is more powerful than Altan ever was. He was verbally and even physically abusive sometimes, but Rin still followed along like a little puppy dog. You get a lot of depth from him also, I mean his entire country was slaughtered, who wouldn’t be a little bit UPSET about that? He had every right to be seeking revenge and now he has passed that legacy onto Rin.

Jiang, probably my favorite character. Damn, I love that man. He’s right though, if only Rin would have listened!! 

I have no complaints about the writing style. It was written beautifully! It was challenging but easy enough to follow along if you were paying good attention. Definitely going to be reading the rest of the series.

Update: changing my rating to a 5 because I cant stop thinking about this BOOK!!