2.5 - The action scenes were brutal and exciting and Tobias was a likable main character, but the romance took up too much page time for it to be as predictable and cheesy as it was and Tobias had MAJOR plot armor in the last 20% of the book that left the ending feeling lackluster. It was also a tad overwritten with it's 600+ pages that could've been cut down for more efficient storytelling.

Spoiler

truly, Tobias should've been dead on the ground between his 3 v 1 fist fight, his torture, his ribs being broken, and him getting into combat with a trained mercenary. I had understood how he'd survived in the other trials, but the ending trials were just doing too much to be realistic.

Spoiler

and the conflict between the sovereign and leila was underdeveloped. I got so frustrated with the amount of times Leila dodged Tobias' questions or answered them vaguely. I get that it's probably going to be explored more in depth in book two, but I wish we had a gotten just a bit more info so we could know how truly in danger Leila was. It felt like she would tell Tobias over and over that they were both unsafe, but then would do things like leave him in her room alone only for Kaleo to find him and torture him. If she knew she had a huge target on her back, why would she leave him alone like that? Or if she truly thought he'd be safe there, how did Kaleo break in? By the end of the book I still didn't understand why the Sovereign wanted her dead and if he did want her dead, how she had survived living with him for so many years. I probs won't read book two to find out, but with this being 600+ pages, I feel like I should have a better understanding of their dynamic.