The book reminds me of First Task by Tamora Pierce. It has the feeling of a training arc, which I do enjoy. by the end of the book I was interested and invested in the characters and their relationships. However, it was not enough to derail my tbr list to make me read the second book. 

I felt as though I did not know enough about the overall consequences of the series to be fully invested in what they were training for, there were hints to a bigger world problem but I think I would have seen more of it if I read the next book. I may come back later and give this series another try, it just wasn't as impactful as some of the other books I'm currently reading.