This wasn’t my favorite Grace Draven story, but it was still decent. I feel like the pacing could have been better and the main characters could have taken more time to get to know each other better before becoming a couple. I also feel like at the beginning we aren’t given very clear reasons as to why Martise is sent to Silhara. We are given a vague reason, but not enough to truly understand what is going on. I would have wanted to know more about the magic of the world and the nature of Silhara’s powers. I think it would have added more depth to the villain of the story and made Silhara’s concerns a bit more clear. Despite that, Martise is a very interesting and talented character and the author does a good job of implying that. She is obviously very knowledgeable, so much so that she becomes essential to Silhara’s search for a trump card against the chaos trying to take over him. The council only sees her as a slave but as Silhara spends more time with her he starts to admire her for her talents as well as her kindness, so I can see why he fell in love with her. There is not a lot of action in this story, so it is a bit slower paced if you’re looking for something with a lot of action and adventure, but the romance is interesting overall and the main characters are given a good amount of depth. The side characters are also fun and interesting, namely Gurn. It’s rare to have characters with disabilities in a lot of fiction or fantasy, so it was really cool that he was shown as someone that despite being mute functioned really well with his disability. The development of his friendship with Martise was one of my favorites. Overall, I enjoyed this story and think the pacing and world building could have used some work, but the characters were so interesting that I think it’s still worth picking up.