Wow. I still need to get my thoughts together before reviewing this one on bookstagram. But what started as a 2-3 star read morphed into a 4 star read. Yes the first third was tedious but it was also necessary. This definitely is more dense/high fantasy than other TBWC books. It's a lot of building relationships & knowledge we'll need for the final book/battle. What a rollercoaster of emotions. As always, I love a fantasy series that digs into real life issues of prejudice.