I've had this book on my shelf for well over a year now. It feels really silly now, thinking back on all the crappy books that I picked up instead of this one. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

It was reminiscent to me of The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, both in atmosphere as well as initial premise. If you are a fan of the DOSAB trilogy, Girl at Midnight may be right up your alley. And if you haven't read DOSAB, please close this review and rectify that immediately.

What I liked:

1. Premise/plot. There are two different groups at war. The Avicen are an ancient race of people with feathers for hair. The Drakharin have scales and are compared to dragons. Echo was taken in years ago by an Avicen referred to as 'the Ala', and lived among them, even though there are some who would prefer she didn't. When they discover that a supposedly mythical creature, the Firebird, might actually be real, Echo goes in search of it, hoping that it will lead to an end of the war with the Drakharin. I don't know why, but I was just totally sucked in from the very beginning. It was fun and it kept my attention.

2. The characters. Echo was a good, not spectacular, main character. I liked Caius and actually wish we'd had a little more from his perspective, but what we did get I enjoyed. We also read from the perspectives of Jasper, an Avicen whose number one concern is his own well-being; Ivy, an Avicen healer; and Darius, a Drakharin guard to the Prince. I do wish that the author had gone a bit deeper with these characters, because even though I enjoyed them, I felt they were a little surface-level. That being said, it was interesting to see their group dynamic as they came from opposite sides of the war to work together for the sake of all their people.

3. Pacing. I never felt like this book lulled. It kept a steady pace from beginning to end, and I was fully engaged in what was going on.

4. I like that Echo is a book nerd and as a fellow book nerd I appreciated all the literary quotes she dropped throughout the book. Some books' characters reference pop culture, she references classic literature. It makes me happy.

What I didn't like:

1. Predictability. Even though the pacing was fine, the end felt a little anti-climactic. I think that is because I had figured out the main twist long before it was ever revealed, so when it was I was just like, "Okay...anything else?" If you don't figure out the reveal early in the book, this book probably won't have the same impact (or lack thereof) as it did on me.

2. I like that this book takes place in our world, but I wish that there was more description of where the Avicen and Drakharin live. We got a little, but I still found myself somewhat confused, especially about the Drakharin. They seem to be very isolated from most of society, and I'd like to know more about them.

3. I have a feeling that the romances are going to get messy in the next book(s) and am not looking forward to it. I'm not sure I feel super strongly about either romance at this point, so creating love triangles will probably not impress me.

4. The audiobook. Now, this is specifically about the voice actor for this series. She is the same voice actor who did the Conspiracy of Us trilogy audiobooks. I don't like how she narrates male voices at all. They all sound pretty much identical, unless they have an accent. If they have an accent they just sound kind of silly. In this book, Caius is described as having a slight Scottish-accent. In her narration, you occasionally hear a word said with an accent that may be described as Scottish, but it's not consistent. I just don't think I like her as an audiobook actor. I didn't dock this story any stars because of that, but I was planning on listening to them all on audio, and now I'm changing the plan because of her narration, so I thought I'd mention it.

I have the next book sitting right next to me, and can't wait to dig in and hope that the sequel is as pleasantly surprising as this first installment was.