I quite enjoyed The Name-Bearer. The cover is gorgeous, and I thought the story was interesting. I liked the mix of realism and fantasy and the weight that Natalia Hernandez gives names, not just with the name-bearer and the sovereign but throughout the story. I loved all the characters and the diversity, and the exploration of the Name-Bearer and her discovery of who she is as a person, although I would have liked more insight into some of the more primary side characters. 

I think there was a lot of telling instead of showing, I wanted things to be a bit more, and I think it made the book come across as younger than Hernandez may have intended. I also found it a little jumbled sometimes. Most of the story is told from the perspective of the Name-Bearer, but when it switches to someone else it was confusing. One last thing about the story itself: it is part of a trilogy so it is a cliffhanger, but even then it ended extremely abruptly, and I found myself surprised by it when it got to that point. I mean it just...stopped. 

I listened to the audiobook and there were some pronunciations that were way off that I found a bit jarring, but even still I loved Ana Osorio's voice and I'll continue with the audio. Overall I thought The Name-Bearer was a fairly strong showing for a debut novel, and I do intend to continue the series.