Ultimate challenge with this book - Get through the first 100 pages then decide if you like it or not. But, man that was a challenge for me. It took me over 6 months to finish this book, and the majority of that time was spent trying to force myself to read the first 100 pages. Just a tip since I didn't know this going into the book, Mia doesn't get to the assassin school until around that 100 page mark. I think another reason it took me so long to get through was there was an overabundance of footnotes in that front half that really dragged the pacing. I mean there were footnotes that took up half a page and it kept pulling me out of Mia's head for too long. I think if some of those were trimmed better without as much flourish in the writing we would have gotten to the school a lot sooner and I wouldn't have had the thought of dnf-ing. I will say those first footnotes left such a bad taste in my mouth (in the sense that every time I saw one that was more than of few sentences long I would interally say here we go again) that I basically skipped or skimmed them towards the end of the book.

Now that was a lot of me ranting, however I still gave this book 4 stars (maybe against my better judgement) because I really did like Mia as a character. I felt she was solid and I liked the supporting cast around her. Really once we got to the school setting I was set and ready to go. I think my favorite part of this book was the world-building put into the school. The images it created in my mind were beautiful and I have a whole list of environments, like the hall of assassins, that I can't wait to paint. My biggest advice when it comes to this book is to give it the chance to get to that promise on the premise because it really does deliver there.