This story really drew me in at the beginning. The characters are lovely and you really get to know them. You even get to see them develop and grow, which is huge. Each character definitely developed themselves over the course of the book, and you could definitely see how the events of the book really changed them.

I'm definitely a reader who reads mostly for the character development and I love to read different personalities that the author has dreamed up. However unfortunately for this book it just wasn't enough for me. I don't really know much background of Leyumin. I kept having to reference the map and the calendar because it wasn't built in the narrative, it was just given as a map. I'm not entirely sure why it is called Mother of Rebellion besides that each character is sowing seeds of rebellion? Are they all mothers of rebellion??? I still don't really know how the characters connect with each other despite the fact that they're in the same continent and a little rebellious in nature.

I honestly think I would have enjoyed this story so much more if each character had their own entire book. Especially since they literally have not interacted with each other yet at all. The characters are truly well developed and likeable, but they were just way too separate. If they were all separate books it would allow room to discuss background, and I wouldn't have waited around the entire book to see how they connect... to no avail.

At five main characters, and about 650 pages, each character realistically only got a little more than 100 pages. It's no wonder there isn't too much background on Leyumin. I had to reread the summary in the middle of the book just to remember where we were headed.

I was sad to find not too many fantastical elements in this High Fantasy tale either. There were Oracles, monsters (that we see... not incredibly often), and a story of a dragon. At some points, it almost seemed like it was being called High Fantasy only because it was set in a continent akin to Medieval England and there were slave wives and slave children.

I can truly tell Boes is setting up for a much larger story, and I really liked all the characters. It just felt like the entire book was an intoduction, with no super clear objective. Not an incredible amount of events could happen for each of the characters. I was initially so drawn in, but I lost the spark midway through the book. I definitely think there is potential here for a cool story, I just don't entirely know what that is. I did truly appreciate a long book that was written in such a simple and understandable writing style. It really does help the reader slip easily into the story without thinking too much about the words.

**I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.