The entire time I read this, I really thought I was gonna give it four stars.

But then the last 25% happened, and I'm just like.....was any of that necessary? It all felt so rushed. Like the author realized they needed an antagonist beyond Hemlock (whose sinister potential was truly wasted) and then wanted to sike us out several times over. It felt like the book was due and the author didn't have time to fully flesh out one of the potential endings, so they decided to just use them all. I mean you can clearly see where they were deciding between:

Spoiler

* Have craft save them
* Have destroying the green well save them
* Have Gadfly be evil.
* Have Aster play a major role at all
* A final confrontation with Hemlock
* An arrival of the Alder King that actually made sense.

It just fell flat in how it tied together.

I also wish there had been some more defined world building on the interactions between courts. Why was Hemlock, whose power was strongest in the Winter Lands, loyal to the Alder King who lived and ruled in the Summer Lands?