If I was asked to rate in after listening to only 1/3 of it, I would have rated it poorly for the following reasons:
1) The narrator wasn't doing the best. There were mouth noises that really made me question whether or not I'd be able to finish the book. The person also sounded congested and pronounced the names differently throughout the book. I'm not sure, maybe that was intentional? But it really set me on edge.
2) It was so predictable. If you read the Hunger Games, Divergent series, or really any mainstream young adult dystopian novel in the past 10 year, you probably could have predicted the first half of the story.
3) I don't see why the

armor that Violet's sister gave her at the beginning of the story had to be a corset. That seems so cumbersome and inefficient.

Now, here are the reasons why by the time the second half came around...I was hooked:
1) The battle/flight scenes. The author (and the narrator) did a fantastic job of putting the reader in those scenes without overloading with unnecessary details. When I tell you that my heart was pounding out of my chest during these parts. I thought I could also command the skies.
2) The spice 🔥🌶 OMG Yarros had me grabbing for my pearls. Don't like of me as a person who doesn't consume spicy books like candy (because boy howdy I do). And ranges from cozy romances to romances that need to be deleted from your kindle after reading in case anyone finds it. But by god, the spice and the sexual tension was just freakin' tops.
3) The twist at the end. Honestly, I didn't see that all coming, which is a relief considering the first 1/3 of the book. I did look online for the ending because if

the main love interest were to die and I wasn't prepared for it

...I couldn't be responsible for my actions.

So, I am going to leave this book gasp starless because I don't want to rated low because of how much I ended up enjoying it but I also didn't to rate it high because how it started.