Even though I kept putting off reading this book for one reason or another, I was still quite excited for it now that I’d finally gotten to it! I mean, it has a sapphic romance, court politics, and assassination attempts, all things I generally love in fantasy! Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to that excitement, though I did still enjoy my time with the book. It just never ended up fully gripping me, and I found it harder and harder to get myself to continue reading the book.

One thing that this book definitely did well was the POVs. Even though the book was written in first person, it was typically quite clear which character we were reading through at any particular moment, and that’s usually quite hard to accomplish with first-person writing in fantasy. I felt like Xania and Lia were both quite clear and distinct characters, and the beginning of the book set them up quite clearly (even if I felt like things got a bit more muddled later on).

I was quite into the romance at first, but it quickly fizzled out for me, unfortunately. I was just never fully able to get on board once we got past the pining, and it felt like there wasn’t that much chemistry and love during the middle/second-half of the book, even if it did come back a bit for me right at the end. Since this was one of the big driving forces of the book, it made some scenes in the second-half of the book fall flat for me, and I found it harder and harder to be invested in the book.

I think my main disappointment was the ending itself, and I felt like it could’ve been done differently to make it more impactful. We miss the POV of one of the characters for most of it, and I felt like that choice made us lose the impact of the final few chapters a bit. If we had seen both sides of it, those final moments and the repercussions for Xania and Lia’s futures might’ve felt more built-up/fleshed out. As it was, I felt like it almost came out of nowhere, and we never got the time to truly sit with the consequences of it, either as the events were happening or afterwards. It just made the whole thing fall flat for me, in the end.

Overall, I am glad I finally read this book, and I still quite enjoyed reading it, even if it isn’t a new favorite.