Sometimes, it's the characters, and other times, it's the plot that hooks one into a book, but for this one, it was the narration. The author's voice hooked me from the get go, and I couldn't put it down. Peppered within her stylish prose packed with powerful verbs are some hidden gems, pun intended, of characters who can be quite cerebral in scheming and very ruthless in defending their clan's honor. The midpoint turn of the book impacted me more than the ending, and the resolution felt a bit too open-ended, but that's the way with the first book of a series these days. A hard recommend!