A traitor's just a patriot on the wrong side of winning.

I found the first quarter of this book extremely difficult to get through. My biggest concern was the italicized narration that would start a chapter off. The first couple of chapters where the narration would summarize the chapter in happier tones felt needless. After time the narration focused on the past and I appreciated the backstory, but the prose felt dense and intentionally complicated.

At this point I wondered if I was reading the right book, so I would double check the reviews, read the blurb of what the story was about and convince myself that it must get better.

Thankfully once the first "book" was completed the story took off. Unfortunately I may have been blinded by frustration in the beginning that I didn't commit to memory certain characters or motives, but that didn't prevent me from continuing on.

The story has some very peculiar magic but this nest of assassins in the Red Church is far from typical. The book really shines as it focuses on the different Shahiid's, their specialities and following Mia as she uses her strengths, and weaknesses, to succeed.

Any comparisons to the typical "kids in school learning their craft" story was easily discarded as the book had gruesome and somewhat gratuitous parts to it.

I would rate the book higher if I enjoyed the first quarter more. However, I liked how the story finished, I'm intrigued by where it can go next so I look forward to jumping in to the next in this tale.