2 or 2.5 /5 stars would be the more accurate rating but I was like, what the heck, let's round it up to 3. Tal really annoyed me, especially at the start. I couldn't care less about any of the other characters. I was thinking of dropping this, thinking it would get better, but then I hit the 50% in mark and I was far too deep in it so I stayed. The ending was better than expected, considering my expectations dropped lower and lower as I progressed through the book, I guess that's not surprising. There wasn't really any plot twist I cared about. The magic part of this book didn't really play a huge part like I was expecting it to, like yeah it was a huge deal because of their history or whatever but in the end, the magic was just fire and sending letters to his mother. But I understand since it's always hard to make a great fantasy if it's a standalone. The worldbuilding is hard to do when you're limited to only a few hundred pages.