I'm torn between showering this novel in praise or throwing my laptop out the window from sheer frustration.

I just couldn't get into the writing. It felt stilted, flat and at times read like a report. The ending (well, a big part of it) is telegraphed just as soon as the main character arrives to take up her new position in the province of Aurdwynn. The final battle was a bit boring.

The final chapter was thoroughly heartbreaking, though. I didn't see that coming. I'm wondering how I can be so conflicted and at the same time can't wait to read the sequel.

I would have given it 4 or maybe 5 stars, if it wasn't for the godawful formatting of the Kindle Edition. There's typo's, missing spaces, missing quotation marks, missing apostrophs. There were many parts I had to read again because I couldn't tell who was talking or doing something. If I have to pay 14 dollars for a digital file, I expect quality. And the Kindle Edition does not have it. It's a disgrace and I will not put up with it. Although I did like the story, and I will read the sequel, I'm going to hit the refund button on Amazon. If the author, the publsiher or Amazon or whoever is in charge can guarantee me an error free edition, I'll purchase it again.

Btw, I checked around and Kobo expects me to pay 25 euro's for this. An ebook. A 600kb file. Yeah, no.