3.5 stars.

A dyslexic bisexual protagonist and a fat lesbian protagonist in YA fantasy? Yes please! Also, normalizing specifying a character's race when they're introduced: love that. A unique form of magic that is an intricate blend of pure luck and hard work. These are all amazing things that I really appreciated about this book - including the briefest discussions of how queerness is viewed in the society and the ever-present fear of how "coming out" can be viewed.

Unfortunately, the pacing was not great. It's a quick read with writing that lends itself to forward momentum, but very little happens until about 50% in the novel. And every interaction between our two main characters felt rushed. The last 20% especially felt like I was getting whiplash because things were happening back to back to back that had almost no impact because we immediately moved on to the next thing.

Also, I wanted to know more about the structure of the world. What's this about four goddesses? What different kinds of magic are there and how can you tell the difference? What does the larger world look like and does it also have magic? The story was very small (for a story about a corrupt queendom) but with enough hints to really ignite my curiosity.

I am, however, really hoping that we get more in this series/world. Because I would 100% read more books by this author.

{Thank you Fierce Reads for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}