Straight from the beginning I could tell this book was going to suck me in. Although I had to pause and highlight characters’ names and their Saints if they were disciples; I quickly became accustomed to hearing about the Saints and the way they were integral to the world. Lobb did amazing work with the world-building. It was never forced, most of the world-building was explained to the readers in a natural way. I didn’t feel like she was pushing the world-building on me, the reader, or like I was being forced to understand the world in order to carry on reading. It made sense – in a book with such a big religion you would have have a lot of talk surrounding the religion – Lobb definitely did that in a great way and I can’t wait for the sequel and whatever else she writes.

The writing also really added a lot to my experience and enjoyment of reading it. The writing mixed with the world-building complimented each other well and aided each other so well. I liked learning about the different Saints and disciples and the magic that’s in them – that’s definitely something I want to see more of in the next book. Not that I want the magic system and all the explanations of the Saints to be a bigger plot than the mystery and romance; but definitely more than what we got this time around.

The whole mystery was also done well. I was surprised and didn’t even suspect the culprit – which was a change as usually I figure out the culprit before they’re revealed. I’m not saying that books where I can spot the culprit/part of the plot bad or badly written – just that it’s like a nice surprise when I don’t manage to solve the mystery before it gets solved for me.

I liked how Lobb approached the topic of Saints and their religion and quite often the fealty that comes with that. She managed to be respectful and critical of the topic – which I really enjoyed to see. Speaking as someone’s who’s been raised in a religious family and who is religious – there is criticism to be found with religions and just because a religious person is critical doesn’t mean they are less religious than the next person. I definitely want to see more of the criticism and how different people view the same topic. 

I felt for Damian, the one main character. He’s scrutinised a lot by his dad who wants him to be this perfect soldier – so much so that he probably doesn’t even see that Damian is not at all suited to the war front. Which was hard to read because Damian most certainly has PTSD but his father refuses to see it because he just wants a perfect soldier. I have no idea what type of psychological help there is available in Ombrazia, but I hope that in the next book he starts to heal and works through some of his trauma.

Damian was the type of character I didn’t think I would like, just because I didn’t think much of him at the start. But as I carried on reading I realised that I really liked him. I got to know him, his personality, and everything he’s been through. He’s a strong character and I can’t wait to see what Lobb does to him in the next book – how much he has to go through (again), and how much I will be feeling for him. He really does want to help people and that was hard to do when he’s being forced not to do that – to only focus on disciple matters and not help the others.

I loved Roz so much. She was also a strong character – Lobb really knows how to write these type of characters, and I was all here for that. I hope that in the next book she really starts to come into her own, becomes stronger and stands up for injustice even more. I definitely got the vibe that she wanted to but didn’t and I very much hope that’s a plot point for her come the sequel.

Literally every single moment Damian and Roz had together I had feelings for as well. Grinning, angst, etc etc. I loved every bit we got with them and if we don’t have a lot of happy scenes in the next book I will riot (I’m joking because I actually really love angst in my books 😂). There’s also some mutual pining mixed with a good amount of angst – as per usual with those two tropes. The two are very high up on my list of favourite tropes.