I was optimistic about this book due to my many fellow reviewers. That was my mistake. It was … slow. And the writing was, um .. painful? I forced my way through most of it, attempting to give the series an honest chance. I didn’t love any of the characters (I'd go so far as to say I DISLIKED most), and the world building was more or less nonexistent. Sarah J. Maas can't say anything once. It's sentence after sentence of dry, repetitive language. I laughed out loud .. a lot .. when I was definitely not meant to laugh. Things got a liiiittle exciting (but ridiculously so) in the final couple of chapters. The villain was so easily defeated (and didn’t even seem particularly powerful in the end…? A RIDDLE? Bahahahahaha.). I'm a good sport so sure, I'll try book #2. But I'm not expecting much.