If I’d known ahead of time that this was military fantasy I probably wouldn’t have requested it, as that’s not generally my thing. I did try to like it, but it was not to be.
The worldbuilding was… sparse. No, pretty much nonexistent actually. The character relationships are likewise not shown but sort of told about and then characters die and you’re like, why should I care? I can’t keep the side characters straight anyway?
The only characters with real personalities were Touraine, who can be summed up as internalized racism and a wish to keep her head down and hope to keep existing, and Luca, who is willing to sacrifice just about anything to gain her throne from her uncle. That’s it.
I kept reading and reading without feeling any interest because there was the tiniest spark there – mostly just a good writing style – that kept me going, but alas I have to stop. From other reviews, I gather that none of my issues with the story really get resolved, so why keep putting myself through a book I’m not even enjoying?
*Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit books for providing an e-arc for review.
Whimsical Dragonette 