Why did I DNF so early, at a mere 39 pages? Well, I'll tell you. Incest. 

WHAT THE F*CK!

Why does one of our main POVs have to be in love with his sister? GROSS! Some reviews say that Magnus's thing that he's got going on for his sister is looked down upon and that she's not REALLY his sister. BUT I DON'T CARE! I don't want to read about it and I won't. Sucks that I have had this book on my shelf for years, only to be let down like this. 

Incest is a big no for me. If you can look past that, then I hope you enjoy the story but I'm ending it here.

I really liked this book it was a very interesting start to a series. A lot happened, and some characters didn't stick around as long as I expected catching me off guard. This book had a few hidden surprises. 
I liked the characters and how the main four; Cleo, Magnus, Lucia, and Jonas, developed as the story progressed. 
Great start to a series and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Incest is a pretty big dealbreaker for me….

I’ve picked this book up multiple times and have struggled to get through it but I finally sat down and read this whole thing in a day and I loved it! I’m not someone who reads a lot of high fantasy because I usually struggle to understand what’s going on but I really enjoyed this book and it was something I could understand well more as I got into it.

In this book we follow a multitude of characters. We have Cleo who is a privileged princess who is forced into an arranged marriage with a man that she hates. Then we have Jonas who is out for revenge against the royal family after Cleo’s betrothed killed his brother. We also follow Magnus and Lucia who are apart of another royal family. Lucia is learning more about herself while Magnus is harbouring some un-brotherly feelings for his sister if you know what I’m saying.

This book isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but if you’re someone like me who doesn’t read a lot of fantasy (especially not high fantasy), then this might be for you. I really enjoyed how this book was set up as it really helped me understand the world and the characters. It sets up the story really nicely in a way that I knew what was going on which is very important to me in fantasy stories. This is a very character driven story which I really enjoyed.

This book would catch me off guard. I’d expect it to go one way and all of the sudden it was going in a completely direction which I really enjoyed.

My only complaint would be that this book felt more like a set up for the next one and while I feel like that was necessary for this series as it’s a long one, it just felt like a book that was leading you to the next book. While I do complain about it, at the same time, it really does help introduce you to the characters and the world really well.

I’m going to address the elephant in the room which was the incest. While the siblings are not technically blood related, I’d still consider it incest because the two of them grew up together believing that they were blood related which is enough for me. However, if that’s the reason you are turned off from this book, I’ll let you know that the feelings are one sided (at least at this point because I haven’t read the other books in the series yet. I mean I have been spoiled for some of the ships in this book so we should be good from my knowledge).

Overall, this book was a great fantasy, especially if you are looking for an introduction to high fantasy, then this is a great one to start with. This book kept me gripped until the last page and I need to pick up the sequel as soon as possible. 

This boy wants to get with his sister, granted it’s kinda obvious she’ll turn out to be adopted, but HE DOESN’T KNOW THAT