Re-read #1 November 2018
Yup. This is definitely one of my favorite books. I am so excited to be getting back into this world. I have Umbertouched coming up next and I couldn't be more thrilled (and nervous) to see how this story wraps up.
And again, THIS BOOK DESERVES MORE PRAISE. I don't think I've heard anyone talking about this series and I just don't get it. It's So. Good.

***UPDATE*** I changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars because I just can’t stop thinking about this book and it really is one of my recent favorites. I understand why it wouldn’t click with some, but my experience with it and the fact that I continue to think about it two weeks and 6 or 7 books later is a testament to my thorough enjoyment of this story.

I really enjoyed this book. I hope more people pick this book up soon, because I don’t think it’s getting the hype it deserves. I think the characters are really well-written and unique and the plot is easy to follow and well-paced. I also thought the world was well-developed, although I hope that the second book expands on the world a bit more.

I’m not sure exactly what genre this book falls into. My first inclination is to call it a fantasy, as it takes place in a world different from our own. However, aside from one character’s ability to affect memory with different potions and another’s ability to command his pet birds, there isn’t a real magical element. But I also feel like this book will probably speak to readers who enjoy fantasy.

What I liked:

1. The main characters. I really enjoyed both Zivah and Dineas. I probably liked Zivah’s chapters more in the beginning, but by the time the main action was taking place I thought both characters were pretty strong. At first I wasn’t sure if each had a strong enough voice to really give them each their own chapters, but the author did a nice job giving them a unique POV. If I had to set the book down and come back in the middle of a chapter, I was never confused by whose POV I was in.

I also really appreciated that one of our main characters is a healer, and uses her knowledge to make her way through this story. I can’t recall another story like this where the main character was a healer.

I feel like some people may be bored by this book because they wanted more action and fighting out of it. But I found myself really interested in the character development. Following Zivah as she tries to help the people in the rosemarked colony and find a cure for the plague was really interesting to me. It never felt info-dumpy or like filler.

2. The pacing was great. I never felt bored by this at all. There are more action-oriented scenes in Dineas’s chapters, which I felt balanced nicely with Zivah’s chapters. That being said, he also had very interesting character development throughout the book. I don’t want to get into specifics because of possible spoilers, but I really enjoyed his arc.

3. The writing. The writing isn’t flowery and overdone. It’s relatively straightforward and it felt almost addictive in its readability. I didn’t want to stop reading once I started.

4. The relationship between Dineas and Zivah. I liked their interactions quite a bit. I liked that there was t even a hint of insta-love here. As they grow as individuals throughout the course of the book they also grow in their regard for one another and it feels natural. I also like that the hint of potential romance wasn’t fully-explored in this book. There are obstacles keeping them from being together in this book, so it’s not like many other books where the characters get together in book one just to be torn apart by some forced circumstances in subsequent books because the author needs to build up romantic tension after getting these characters together too quickly. I appreciate the slow burn.

Things I didn’t like:

1. As much as I enjoyed my reading experience, I don’t remember ever feeling truly surprised. There are a couple of reveals and moments that are supposed to be little twists, but they didn’t really move the needle for me. That’s not to say that I predicted each turn, when it happened I was like, “Yeah, that makes sense that it would happen like that.” Now, this did not detract at all from my experience, but in thinking back on the story itself it’s something that I realized.

In reality, I can’t think of much I didn’t like about this book. I can’t wait for the next to come out, and I want to check out more from Livia Blackburne.