“Remember my name. Because I'm going to be the one who kills you.”

Stars (Out of 10): 5/10 Stars

Overall Thoughts: This was… okay. It had pretty decent premise, and I’m curious where this whole twisting mystery is going, and want to continue the series. But the main character, she sucked. A ton. She was soooo set in her ways, and unable to even see anyone else’s point of view. It felt like she was just using people at points too :( Ugh!

The Good: Pretty cool world (and while it is technically “urban fantasy” it seems to mainly stick to the fantasy world, which I prefer), and I also am pretty interested in where the plot goes, since book one

The Bad: It dragged on! And then all of a sudden tons of stuff happened somewhere else, that felt unrelated to the main plot of book 1 so far, in the last 50ish pages of the book? So that was rough. But the main thing here is Bryn, the main character. I liked nothing about her :( her personality didn’t line up with her dreams, she was stubborn in the worst way, and downright rude to whoever didn’t agree with what she was saying that exact moment.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

The Characters: Okay, I probably won’t even have the space to write about anyone else, but let’s just say that all the side characters were leagues better than Bryn. Ridley, Ember, her parents, etc, all were super accepting of Bryn, even when she was being a world class bitch, or changing her mind frequently, or talking back against the people she preached she would lay her life down for, or wanted to serve at the highest extent. For that amazing feat, those guys deserve a million medals. But oh Bryn, why did you have to be the main character? She has a dream, and that’s all she cares about, EXCEPT when she was working? She was inconsistent, speaking back against the King, yet wanting to be on his most elite workforce? Why would that ever be smart, and why did her friends always have to remind her of her dreams to stop her from making career ending decisions? Then, on top of all that, she was rude to her friends when they didn’t follow her sometimes shaky mantra of work above all, and was only okay with seeing her parents when she knew she would be able to worm some info out of her dad? Overall, I strongly dislike this main character, but hey, at least there’s room for a crazy awesome character arc, right? (please)

The Plot: This was actually pretty cool, and probably the main reason why this book is still 5/10 or 3/5. It kept me reading even when I didn’t care about Bryn anymore, and at this point I’m just sticking around to see all these secrets unfold (and for that sweet, sweet character arc). I’m so in the dark of where this can all go, and this time it’s actually good, and interesting, to just go where the series takes me. (But not yet, need some good main characters to ease my irritation.)

The World Building: This was actually done pretty well, and done in a factual way by using someone new to the world as a way to explain the world to the readers. Felt clever, although obvious, since that new guy never really showed up again. But hey, I’m glad I was actually given knowledge of the world! The tribe system is super complicated/interesting, so good detail and building is necessary.

The Favorite Character: Ridley, and I liked the friend that stood up to Bryn’s bitchiness but I’m a terrible person and forget her name already

This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/