It took me 3 tries to get into reading these and I only did because the show is coming up and I wanted to understand both sides. It's almost a new universe as opposed to Shadow and Bone, but now that I've read King of Scars, I think that served it quite well.

My main issue is not liking some of the characters and when I don't like them and yet multiple people seem to be *in love* with them, it makes it even worse. Eventually I found myself enjoying a few characters and interactions, but overall it just wasn't quite for me. I think I like the fantasy aspect of things far more than the gang-politics that these two worked from.

All-in-all, I think Nina wound up being my favorite, though Jesper was also interesting to me.