I find this book to be slightly difficult to rate simply because I went into it with all of the wrong intentions.

If you're at all familiar with fantasy romance, you know there are FANTASY romances and fantasy ROMANCES. I picked this up, believing it to be the latter, and wanting it to be, but this book is much heavier on the fantasy than it is the romance. With that being said, I was really impressed with how much world building went into this book. I had to keep track of histories, trade politics, geography, and much more to follow the story. The world was fleshed out in a way that I did not expect.

BUT, I wanted romance. And the romance was incredibly boring. It's tropey to the point of being clunky. The switch between enemies to lovers was QUICK. From the moment this woman sees her love interest, she's got the hots for him. It was also laughable how much the author tries to convince you he's the bad guy when he does not do one bad thing. It just did not deliver.

Overall, this could have been rated more highly if I had not started the book for the romance.