She is Elspeth Spindle, the daughter of a former Captain of the King’s Guard, who was sent to live with her aunt and uncle for reasons you need to read about.

He is Ravyn Yew, the current captain of the King’s Guard, and it’s his job to do the King’s awful bidding.

I don’t want to say too much, but as you learn the motives of the cast of characters, the stakes only rise higher and higher.

I love this story so far! Elspeth Spindle is a rare FMC in that she is not a caricature of a woman with too much of any one personality trait. I had SO much fun with the feet kicking romantic tension. And I truly loved trying to figure out the mystery and the magic system.

I will say that it’s not going to get all five stars from me because without book two, this isn’t quite satisfying. I have read that book two of the duology is really satisfying in answering the questions we still have, so that is promising.

It’s a pretty brutal cliffhanger, so you’ll probably want to plan to read book two straight away.