I actually forgot I finished reading this book. And if that doesn't show how little of an impact it left, I don't know what else would.

I had high expectations for this series. I've heard about it for years, and I even bought the whole trilogy a couple years back. Unfortunately, I kind of wasted my money. My friend Katie, who has read this trilogy, warned me that I might not enjoy it all that much, but I wasn't expecting to feel so indifferent.

I had issues with the writing. It felt kind of choppy at times and there were too many commas added in places where they weren't needed. I found myself having to reread sentences cause the commas were just in places my brain wasn't expecting. There was some nice prose though, but the rest of the writing just didn't flow so smoothly for me.

Kestrel was an okay character? She really annoyed me in the beginning, but at times her cleverness would show and I would be impressed. But then she would act like an idiot once again and I just didn't care enough about her to feel invested in the story. While the plot itself is interesting enough, Kestrel's thoughts mostly centre on Arin, and I didn't like him either.

Their whole relationship felt off. I feel like we didn't really see a lot of good moments that explained their attraction towards each other. There were some, but Arin was so suspicious and Kestrel refused to see the obvious signs and let herself fall for him. And then even after what happens, she still likes him. I get that they're on opposite sides of a war, especially a war that enslaved Arin's people. And Kestrel knows that the Herrani were treated terribly and technically this revolution/uprising is their due, but Arin also murders/hurts a lot of her close friends and family, and she still is constantly thinking about him?? I kind of wish we could have had an enemies to friends sort of thing happen instead. Where Kestrel recognizes what her people have done, but also sees what Arin has done to her, and then they both work together for the good of their people.

I really wanted to like this book and continue with the series, but despite the ending, I already know that Kestrel is going to be spending the majority of the next book thinking about Arin and that this will overshadow any good plot we might also get on the side. So unfortunately, I've decided to dnf the rest of this series and donate my copies to the library. Pretty sure 17/18 year old Sakina would have liked this trilogy a lot more, but I'm just tired of a lot of romance in fantasy.