I’m really struggling to put a rating on this book. On one hand, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, their motivations, and the world. On the other hand, this book did have a flaw that impacted my reading experience.

I really enjoyed the magic and world building in this book. I thought it was super interesting and brought life to the story.

Though I didn’t like all of the characters in this novel, watching their character growth was what kept me reading. Malik and Karina never felt flat to me; they very clearly had their own goals and watching them struggle to reach those goals was engaging.

The thing that really diminished my reading experience with this was the pacing. It felt really slow in the beginning. We don’t even see the two mc actually talk to each other until 50% of the way through. Although the world building was great, it was hard to hold my attention when I kept wondering, “okay and what is the point of all this? When is the plot moving forward?” I think Brown makes up for this in the last quarter of the novel by really amping up the pacing and the stakes but I’m kind of sad we don’t get that a little sooner.

Overall, I liked it and will probably read the second book.