I fully acknowledge that I'm not the target audience for this book, and maybe I'm just a hater, but the romance really took away from what was otherwise a solid fantasy-adventure and felt a bit forced. Right as the action is peaking, we take a several chapter break to focus on relationship drama?

Also, it's weird to have two sets of siblings be each other's romantic interests. Like I just could not get past that.

Adeyemi's afterward also gave this rating a decent bump