I first saw this book on a list of books with black lead characters where the plot doesn‰ЫЄt center on them being black. The world is well-structured and the characters are complex, but it felt like there was something missing. Maybe not enough world building, maybe the world felt a little too small for the stakes to be so high. I never understood why Tzain didn‰ЫЄt get any POV chapters. And Inan‰ЫЄs back and forth felt a little unbelievable.
However, I LOVED the magic and the story, and I can‰ЫЄt wait for book 2!