I have incredibly mixed feelings about this book, but for the most part - I did not like it. 

If you like books such as Piranesi (sentient house/the house is a character in itself), A House of Salt and Sorrows (theme of the sea, fairy tales) and the Cruel Prince (fairy tales), you’ll love this. Unfortunately, I only enjoyed the later of that previous list - thus, did not enjoy my experience. 

The pace is slow, and we are basically fed breadcrumbs. The ending was incredibly anti-climatic. The « romance » felt short. The fairy tales in themselves were so boring and overdone. So many side storylines that really amounted to nothing. In short: the story builds on a lot, only for the end to fall flat.

I appreciated the ambiance. The writing style in itself was nice, if a bit poetic at times.

Not unlike Divine Rivals, the author went through the length of creating a whole continent, with cities and wars and everything, only for that to not be necessary at all, in addition to being misogynistic. 

In other words, bleh. 

Beautiful cover art, though.