I was really excited for this book, genuinely. And in the beginning of the book, I thought it would live up to its potential. With a heavy heart, I have to say it was not one of my favorites of this genre.

Some good and some disappointing things about the book:

Good: Aydra was the badass Queen I wanted.
Disappointing: I don’t think the Aydra/Rhaif plot line was handled as well as it could’ve been.
Good: Draven. I loved him very much.
Disappointing: I didn’t love the way Aydra and Draven’s relationship progressed. It was a little bit boring.
Good: Whitney surprised me with killing off her two main characters.
Disappointing: Now that these main characters are dead, I’m not that interested in continuing the series. I assume it’ll be about Nyssa and Dorian, but I didn’t get attached in this first book, so I don’t completely care about their journeys.
Good: A+ on worldbuilding. The Noctuans? The Architects? Haerland herself? So interesting.
Disappointing: The lack of one, central plot really bothered me.

This is a hard review to write because I was super hyped for this book.

Will I definitively not read the next book? Not necessarily. Am I bitter about the death of two characters who I really wanted to see win something? Yeah. Did I shed a single tear? Yeah, I did.

Anyways.