Unfortunately, I didn't end up liking this book as much as I wanted to. It starts out SO STRONG- I immediately liked the main character, Zelie, who lives in a world which has violently banished magic and continues to punish those who have the DNA for magic use and the white hair that comes with it. Zelie's maji mother was murdered in front of her eyes and the pain and emotional scars have barely faded from her family. In the first scene we learn that Zelie has been training with a staff for years and longs to fight back, but to do so would risk even worse punishment. By chance she meets Amari, daughter of a cruel king, who flees from the palace with a power artifact that might be able to return magic to the world. The two girls and Zelie's brother embark on a breakneck secret mission to take the artifact to someone who can tell them how to use it. They are immediately pursued by Amari's older brother, the crown prince Inan, and the King's most trusted general. Pursuers and the pursued are rarely more than a day apart, and piles of bodies are left in the wake of both as they chase their bloody way across the damaged country.

The world building is very strong and the magic, magical creatures, and the gods are engaging and original. But the predicable romance was underdeveloped and boring. The book is a page-turner, which I really enjoyed for about the first 1/3, after which I started to feel a kind of adrenaline-fatigue. I kept hoping the characters would get just a minute or two to rest, but they really never did. I almost just set it down about 1/3 of the way from the end, but decided to finish it since it's such a quick read. I don't think this is necessarily a bad book, just a book that didn't work for me. I still think other people should give it a try if the description sounds good, and I am interested in the movie version that I hear is in production. I imagine it will have the same relentless pace as the book, but that might work better for me on screen than it did on the page.