It definitely took a while for this book to grow on me. I felt very confused about it at first, what kind of land it was, how the royalty/nobility worked, what the heck the shipforts were and how they worked/looked. I don;t think I've ever wished to be able to ring up an author more and be like, "explain please." But the more the story went on, the more i got to know the characters and their individual arcs in the story and it didn't take long for me to begin devouring it.