Wow. This manga is so beautiful., I would literally just stare at every page for minutes at a time, drinking in all the details. The clothing, jewelry, carpet, wood paneling, the panels and environment. it was all so beautiful.

The age gap, since everyone is commenting on it, doesn't really bother me. The author commented in the Afterwords that the usual age of marriage for this time was 15-16. So both characters are kind of the wrong age to be getting married, which I appreciate since it doesn't feel like there is a huge power imbalance or someone is being taken advantage of. They are kind of both the fish out of water here. In chapter three Uncle Amak and the other family members kind of comment on Amir being too old. In the end of chapter one, you can see some other characters saying that Karluk is too young ("but her groom is some snot-nosed whelp.") So the manga acknowledge that its a little weird, which is why the story is happening. But it really has me interested: why is Amir not married at her age? Why was someone as young as Karluk picked as her husband? I really want to read to find out!

That being said I actually really like Karluk and Amir's relationship. In chapter 3 (my favorite chapter) they get a lot of alone time traveling together. To me they just feel like a family and I really like it. Probably because the relationship hasn't become sexual yet. They just seem to care about each other and also they have no idea what they are doing lol. Navigating their relationship is the main conflict after all. I'm excited to see them work out the situation they are in as they grow together as a family.

I really like the family members too. They already love her so much it seems and accept her really quickly despite the odd circumstance. Rostem's chapter is so cute. And I love Seleke and Balkirsh. They have such big personalities. Really all the women in the manga do. Amir is also so cool and kind of a bad ass. I love her! I love Karluk too. I like how quiet and observant her is. i feel like you can read his emotions and thoughts just from his facial expressions in panels. Kaoru Mori is so talented.  Even though Seleke's husband Yusuf only has a few appearances, he also has so much personality. I love this whole family and really just want to learn as much as I can about them. Even Smith, the random foreigner who is staying with them. 

Lastly, I read a physical copy of the book. Its pretty nice to hold a hard copy manga.

I will 100% being reading the rest of this. I'm gonna get volume 2 like right now!