It starts off slow, which I don’t always mind, but the pacing made it hard to stay engaged. One of the major plot twists was painfully obvious early on, which took a lot of the tension out of the story. 

At first, I liked the protagonist. She was a little naive, sure, but she seemed interesting and had potential for growth. But then halfway through, her personality did a complete 180. Out of nowhere, she suddenly believes she can handle everything alone. She becomes recklessly overconfident, even when her actions put others in danger just because they have to protect her. 

And of course, there’s the classic fantasy shortcut: a few training scenes and suddenly she’s just as skilled as lifelong warriors. I get wanting a capable heroine, but this felt completely unearned. 

The plot itself didn’t help much either—it felt scattered and unfocused, like the author kept throwing in twists and tropes without fully committing to any of them.