I had a lot of trouble deciding on a rating — originally it was going to be 4 stars, downgraded from the 5 stars I could easily envision, but I most likely just want so badly to like this book more than I actually did. It had so much potential, and yet fell so short.

This book feels really short, possibly in part because it divides neatly into just three distinct sections: exposition/Ceony’s early apprenticeship,

Spoiler

Lira & Thane’s heart (which was ... an Experience for sure)

, and falling action; it’s more straightforward than almost anything I’ve read in recent memory. Not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case it feels too simplistic, especially considering the narrator (whose age I tend to use as an indicator for target audience) is nineteen.

I’m particularly disappointed in the kind-of romance.

Spoiler

In my mind, the student/teacher relationship is platonic, almost sacred — I know it’s a romance trope, but it’s one that makes me uncomfortable — and in this case there’s nothing to suggest Thane feels that way about Ceony, and even less logical buildup for her own romantic attraction to him; it’s like it just suddenly happened when she found herself literally standing in his heart, without even a believable epiphany moment, almost more like a reaction to Lira than Thane himself. I also found the idea of Lira as her “rival” laughable in so many ways. Lira’s jealousy is believable if only because it’s cliched in its extremity (possessive ex-wife; “if I can’t have him no one can”), though it certainly doesn’t mean Ceony has to “stare at her breasts and note that they’re larger than her own” (paraphrased of course, but this happens multiple times). Further heteronormative moments ensue, including the “just ‘having fun,’ as adolescent boys are bound to do” memory (that’s quoted verbatim).

The worldbuilding, though, is exquisite — 5-star quality, as in I would love to inhabit this literary ‘verse. However, the writing quality doesn’t quite live up to this promise: long admiring-the-roses descriptive tangents of the kind I’ve only ever appreciated in the service of a superficial book report, awkwardly flowery word choices (though I’m willing to attribute some of this to a difference in local language, since it’s set in London), underdeveloped secondary characters, and the issues I’ve detailed previously.