Okay, so I won this book on Goodreads and maybe I should have read the synopsis a bit more carefully. I didn't realize this was a prequel to a book series already in existent. So, I will give four stars based on that alone. It explains a lot of my confusion with this book and the way it ended, frustrated me more than anything. Now, it make sense.

I will just focus on the writing, which is beautiful. But I really hate long chapters. Well, actually this was in five parts instead of chapters and I just need an endpoint to a shorter chapter. Sorry, it's how I read and what I like. Sometimes, the author was repetitive on things, which got annoying. I don't know how many times I read, "so in so is master's brother, father, sister, kin." I get it, I really do. You can move on from that and just say the person's name. With that, his writing was good. I was in the story and wanted to know what happened. I do feel like the dragon should have been the real story/the ultimate climax, but I guess it had to set up the remaining series. His descriptions were intense and I felt like I was there fighting that dragon or fighting off bandits. I felt myself in the gardens.

I'm not sure to recommend this book, because I should have read the other books before this.