Why do I keep doing this to myself? The answer is, I just check out stuff that's been on my TBR and is currently available at my branch of the library while I wait for the stuff I actually want to read to become available. (YA is surprisingly unpopular at libraries. Do y'all not go to the library??) 

So, what infuriates me about most YA novels, is they have a great premise and terrible execution, which is once again my biggest issue with the novel. The problem is that standard fantasy novels have a long and varied introduction. It's the standard call to action. We grow with the main character, as they learn things about this fantasy world. This YA novel, like a vast majority of YA fantasy I've had the misfortune of reading, blasts through that.

Will has been on the run his whole life. He finds the Stewards, this magical society of old-timey knights. He becomes "one of them" but we don't get to really see it. As a result, when the entire civilization of Stewards is slaughtered, I didn't really feel anything. There's lots of references to Cyprian as "the last Steward" and imagery of him as representative of an entire culture lost... but I don't really feel anything about it because that culture wasn't really fleshed out. It felt like when in YA novels the parents are always on business trips or they're dead because the author needs an excuse as to why nobody cares that this teen is out until midnight on school nights and doing ungodly things with men that would be arrested for indecent contact with a minor in 5 minutes flat. 

The only death that even made me pause for a moment was Justice, because he had a decent amount of screen-time and even then it wasn't much. We don't even know where he actually came from, or anything about him besides his mentorship with Violet. And even the extremely intriguing dynamic of him being a mentor-figure to Violet and also her biggest enemy if he ever found out her identity is shoved aside for some glossover infodump explanation of a culture that the author doesn't bother to fully flesh out because she's going to genocide it in the next chapter. 

Here's the thing though, the ending? Fantastic. The twist? Didn't see it coming. Although I only picked it up because this book is labeled as LGBT+ on Storygraph, and there wasn't really any LGBT+ content the vibes in the last chapter were hella gay. I see the gay now. But I would not consider this to have any LGBT+ representation at this point. 

I would say that this book suffers from Sarah J. Maas Syndrome the entire first novel is an unnecessary prequel. It either needed to be much longer or cut completely. Honestly the only reason this is even rated as high as it is, is because the last like 2 chapter captivated me. Will I read the sequel? Depends on a few things. If the gay is confirmed, I will probably read it. The other is if it's available at the library and nobody else is reading it lol.

3½/5 not-gay-enough, not-fantasy-enough stars