Once again I am in the minority. This book appears to be fairly popular and well liked.

It wasn't that I thought this book was objectively bad. I've read some of those, and this wasn't it. However it wasn't for me. Or perhaps I was just in the wrong mood for it? Honestly I spent the majority of my time bored and struggling to pick this back up.

The beginning started a bit tropey (girl is Special (TM) and shunned by her village) but then it got right down to the action... and proceeded to be "no plot, only vibes" for a sizeable chunk of the story. I legit had no idea what the plot was even going to be through most of the book, and while I don't mind a slow mover, I need SOMETHING to drive me through this story. Instead I got an extended beekeeping sequence.

The MC needed to struggle more. She had straggles near the end, but through the majority of the book whenever she encountered an obstacle, social or otherwise, it was swiftly over. During the extended beekeeping sequence

Spoiler

I thought at least she was building a strong relationship with her mentor, so when he inevitably died it would really hurt both her and us. But she moved on from him with barely a backward glance and he died off screen, barely acknowledged.

There was interesting magical animal husbandry involved in this book. but TBH as someone who works with large animals myself I felt like everything was fairly obvious and I always figured out what the MC needed to do long before she did it, so I just sat there, annoyed, until she finally figured things out.

If you like SLOW books with characters who aren't the deepest, a cool magical creature, and action at the beginning and end, this books is for you. If not... maybe you'll feel like I did.