This could have easily been a 5-star read. This story had such a promising world with characters I enjoyed and a plot that I was excited to see play out, at least at the beginning. Everything started to go downhill for me during Part 3 when the plot veered in a completely different direction. The initial conflict could have made an excellent story on its own and I felt the second conflict was just...unnecessary? That aside, I really disagreed with the unfairness of one of the character's fates and the polyamorous rep was hinted at rather than explored.

The ending, in particular, felt like a bait-and-switch and I really thought publishing had learned its lesson about how much readers hate that.

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