I really enjoyed the world building in the book. I loved the world. I thought the book at points near the start was predicable but towards the ending some of the plot stuff did surprise me. The characters were the stand out in this novel. I loved the various POV that we got. I loved Will as a lead and am super excited to see book 2! It was a fast pace read! ( )

I really enjoyed the world building in the book. I loved the world. I thought the book at points near the start was predicable but towards the ending some of the plot stuff did surprise me. The characters were the stand out in this novel. I loved the various POV that we got. I loved Will as a lead and am super excited to see book 2! It was a fast pace read! ( )

Two teens with secrets and similarities meet after the girl is banished by her father, a king in the north. The boy is similarly banished by his father from the southern kingdom. Both are cursed and suffer frightening fates as a result. Their meeting and subsequent travels, first to the south, then to the north, are intertwined with other characters, as well as plenty of action and tension, all creating a book that is difficult to set down. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel to arrive on my doorstep ( )

Maybe I was just in a nit-picky mood while reading this, but I got very annoyed by what I think of as "bad science" science fiction. The story is kind of a fantasy/steampunk thing but a lot of the technology made zero sense. How can they have portable digital displays but no photography? Remote detonation explosive but not radio communications? What seemed to me logical paths of technology were not followed. Also a lot of their tech seemed to be just magic, but most people dont believe in magic so it didnt make sense how that could be explained.

Character motivations were kinda muddled and often their actions were not logically explained (i know humans are not always logical but still it was annoying). Lots of scenes where solutions seemed obvious to me but no one in book could figure out what to do. ( )

Review in my Merry Bookmas Week 3 Vlog
https://youtu.be/4Fl2gXGuBa8 ( )