An entertaining, easy-read coming of age story in which Talia escapes her difficult family to train as a Herald, complete with magical powers and an even more magical horse. The main strength here is the protagonist - Talia is sympathetic and I enjoyed reading about her, but I did feel that the more talents got heaped on her in the second half of the book the less interesting she was, and the more she started to feel like a fantasy heroine rather than an actual person. Another positive is the general atmosphere of kindness that surrounds her in Herald training school - obviously there's conflict in the story and enemies to be defeated, but they're often almost outside the text, and it's nice to read a book where pretty much everyone who spends any time on page is a decent person. I have to say, though, that in many ways the book struck me as a very long introduction. A pleasant one, don't get me wrong, but when I came to Goodreads to rate and review and saw that it was the first in a series, I felt absolutely no surprise. The rest of the series will be going on my reading list, though, and I hope they're as likable as this one!