First off, I love the premise. Starts out as a very typical, Light vs Dark & Chosen One fantasy, but it becomes pretty clear about 1/3 in that the author is planning to subvert tropes and flip some things around.

I love the beginning of the book. I throws you right into the action and makes for a great start. I will say there are A LOT of male characters with basic names you're introduced to early on, and I had some trouble keeping them all straight in my head. 

I also LOVE the ending. Even having figured out the main plot points, I was still super impressed and engaged with how it was writen and how the details were tied in. 

The book really plays into this idea of history being doomed to repeat itself and has many characters struggling against the roles they find themselves cast into. I think this is a super interesting dynamic and sets up for book two phenomenally.

Now the bad parts. The pacing in the middle was off for me. There were sections with nothing but info dump that dragged on and others with plots and quests that felt super rushed. A lot of side quests were packed into the middle that I felt could've been either cut or expanded. As it was ... they simply existed. I also felt there were too many side characters mentioned that ended up with little to no plot relevance. Definitely a forgivable offense, but worth noting.

All in all, a good intro to what seems like a very promising series.