2025 review: While I stand by most of my initial thoughts when I tried to read this last year (see below), it worked better for me this time around. This book has been popping up on my bookish feeds again, so I thought to give it another try when the audiobook became available on Libby.

I still think the magic system explanations made the story drag (though I appreciated the creativity and, eventually, it got interesting), the heavy-handedness of the themes was still very much there, and I didn't like Sciona for most of this, but she did have character development that made sense and I respect that.

I wasn't into the romance, though. What I did appreciate about the relationship is that they both challenged the preconceived notions they had of each other. But there didn't need to be a romance for that to happen. It should've just been a friendship because the romance felt like colonizer romance to me and it didn't sit well. Plus, I felt no romantic chemistry between them.

I would've loved it if Sciona already had thoughts of "Hey, maybe this society is fucked up, maybe our marginalized communities are actual people too" before she begrudgingly started spending time with Thomil. But that's just a preference thing; I would've been more on board if her humanity was already budding inside her, but her ego and hubris were just too thick for it to break through, I guess.

Other than that, the plot was interesting even if the twists weren't surprising, the action was good, I loved the writing style, the pacing was nice overall, and I really enjoyed Thomil. His character is what carried this book for me and he felt like the heart of the story in many ways. The way he challenged Sciona and spoke to her as she should've been spoken to, how smart and brave he was, and the values he held made him very likable.

2024 review: Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine | Del Rey for the access to this ebook.

Oh, I'm sad about this one. That first chapter was AMAZING. So good, I was so into it! But then I kept reading and was met with Sciona, and it all went downhill from there *for me*. I greatly appreciate the creativity that went into the magic and magic system, I really do, but it was overexplained and it made this draaaaag. Meanwhile, the characters felt one-dimensional, and that's my biggest issue with this because I just wasn't invested in them at all.

Sciona is unlikeable and she's meant to be, because she reflects the society she's in, but I just couldn't get behind her at all. The writing was so incredibly heavy-handed with its themes as well, I didn't like it at all. Like, I get it, I really do, there's no need to spell things out for me when they're already so in my face. Anyway, I didn't vibe with this at all, but I'm not writing off this author. I'm very interested in checking out The Sword of Kaigen at least.