First off, I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I found the book interesting, if not exactly up my alley. I'm also a graduate student in history, albeit in the United States, so there were parts of it I felt kind of judge-y about, and also weirdly had a hard time suspending my disbelief about the DNA/science parts (tracing motherhood lineage is actually way harder than it sounds, which I know from Native American DNA by Kim TallBear, weirdly.) But I think that was me having difficulty, and if you want to turn off your brain and just enjoy it, you can. Some of it felt rushed towards the end, and given that is it in a series I was expecting the ending to be less neat than it was, but it wasn't bad, and I did enjoy some of it. If you like historical fantasy, there is lots for you to love in this book!