I tried this after finishing The Black Witch this past weekend. I raced through that 600+ page book yet felt this one really dragged. I just didn’t care about Tessla at all and found her super irritating. I was also sick to death of the repetitions about her and Vale’s affinities calling out to each other or whatever. We get it. They both have fire magic. No need to beat us over the head with that. I got 60% of the way through and decided I just didn’t wanna waste anymore time on this prequel. I’ll still give whatever’s after The Black Witch a try though and hope I go back to enjoying the story.