Going into this, I didn’t know what to expect, but thanks to the intricate plotting and compelling characters, it left a pleasant impression by the end.

The first thing that caught my attention more than the plot or magic system is the author's brilliant expression of character voice. You could read a page in random from the book and instantly tell who the PoV character is, and we don't see that done as well in many books without some sort of whiplash.

The story takes its time to get to the meat of it. In fact, for nearly the first half of the book, the 3 subplots of Lin, Jovis, and Phaleau move along in near-parallel tracks, and one might wonder how they might all come together. But past the midpoint, you get little hints about a promising convergence, and the author does deliver it.

The main twist itself was sort of predictable from the midpoint, especially considering the book's title. But despite it all, I found the subplots entertaining and the characters interesting. So, I didn’t mind the journey to get to the end. Overall, a very promising first book to a series!