Ella and Miro are siblings living in the fantasy region of Altura where the 'lore' of the land is enchantments. The siblings have never known their parents and live with an old grandfather-like figure. Ella is determined to get into the local college to become an enchanter and Miro, who posseses a natural skill with a blade, wants to become a bladesinger, an elite form of soldier who uses enchantments to make his fighting even more lethal. But war is on the horizon and the siblings are about to become more involved than they would like.

Overall I think I have to give this one a 3 stars as it definitely lacked in some areas for me. I was really disappointed that I got to see so little of Ella and Miro's training in their chosen fields (when I say little, I mean basically none). Why tease a school of enchanters and not give a few days of lessons? I would have even enjoyed Ella's first day in school but she got in and the next chapter it was one year later? The lore and magic system seemed to have been figured out fairly well so I'm not sure why the author chose to leave the school system out.

At first, I thought I was getting some adequate world-building and was coming to terms with the different regions of the one land ruled by the emperor and what their skills was but it became lost to be honest. I would have benefit from a brief glossary at the start of the book detailing the land, who their leader was and what their 'lore' was. I kept trying to figure out who was who and getting confused with who was on what side.

There was also a lot of unnecessary gruesome and gory scenes in this book. Miro's chapters were enormously battle-staged and it did become a bit tiring after a time. There's only so many times you can read a battle without them all blending into one and also feeling a bit hopeless when so many people are dying. Compared to other scenes in the book, the ones that were very violent sometimes seemed out of place. I also really really really didn't appreciate the disgusting act of cruelty in the one brief glimpse we got at Ella's school - a cat being tortured until its back breaks and it vomits its insides is not something I want to read about and the graphic scene played on my mind all day.

One of the few bits I really enjoyed about this book was the Dunfolk. I found them really entertaining and interesting. I loved their words for certain things and how separate they were from the other people of Altura. I enjoyed ever scene with them and I would have loved more.

I'm no 100% sure if I'll go on and read more of this series. When I first finished, I thought I would but now I sit and think about my feelings on the series, I'm not 100% sure. I guess we'll see if my curiosity wins out in the end.