Well... that... happened.

Tara Sim has a knack for dramatic revelations. Unfortunately, that's it. The pieces had a habit of coming together immediately after being introduced, conflicts resolved with 1-2 chapters. It made for very little payoff. Another major sign of the lack of setup: the last 10% or so of the book is pure monologuing. It just didn't... work.

From a technical standpoint, too much repetition and use of "the boy"/"the girl" to refer to people.

Points for representation, this was basically the queerest fantasy book I've ever read. The rest of the worldbuilding was kind of weak. The dynamic between Cayo and Bas definitely could've made for a much richer story--and that brings me to my next major issue with this one.

It's about the wrong characters.

It would have been fine to pull a last-minute switcheroo on us if we actually believed the story was about Amaya avenging her father's death or Cayo... honestly Cayo didn't really have much consistent. But those things were always secondary. It was always the big cons driving the plot--Cayo's dad, Amaya's mentor. They drove the plot. Cayo and Amaya were just kinda there.