I went into this expecting a typical fantasy book with a straight romance subplot but I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. The cast was diverse and well written; the character were interesting and while Karis started off as a sort of not-like-other-girls type, but by the end she had changed. The found family trope was pretty well done, though I wish we’d gotten to see more of the side characters.

I also really appreciated the aromantic/asexual rep with Karis. I’ve never seen a book protagonist with that identity, and it was really nice to read something with a character like that.

The plot wasn’t the most original, but it was well written and done in a new way. The world building was very strong and I could tell the author spent a lot of time on it.

The whole thing felt very different from a lot of young adult fantasy, and it was refreshing to see something unique. It definitely brought something new to YA and I hope to see more stories like this in the future.