I must say, I did dive into this book with pretty low expectations. The cover looked as if the book wouldn’t really grab my attention, but boy was I wrong. As the ubiquitous English idiom would say: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole story; it’s very stressful and tension-inducing – in a good way. With all these exciting characters and its action-packed plot, this story kept me guessing the entire time.

This author has a really wonderful grasp on story building. The characters are really great and each brings a unique aspect to the book. I loved the members of the “team”, Percival, Briah, Alexander, Maximus, Klivos, Willks – I’ve grown quite attached to them. There is great action in this book; it’s very engaging and tension-filled. I felt like the plot was actually going somewhere, it has a purpose. Also, the subplots were tied together really well. You know, that moment when Lady Wieven explained everything about Jameson and the you-know-what. It all just fits together beautifully. This book had a lot of POV switches, but, surprisingly, they weren’t annoying. I enjoyed them! They were excellent and very well-paced. My favourite POVs were that of Percival and Briah. And no, that isn’t me making pterodactyl noises.

Now that we’ve discussed the more enjoyable points of the book, let’s talk about a few things that weighed the book down. The author has a tendency to simultaneously drop huge amounts of information on you; this can get very disorienting and confusing. When this happens, I’ve found that I just stared at the page, rereading it over and over, in order to completely absorb the information. It’s very time-consuming. The author also describes things too much. For example, sometimes I’d find a whole paragraph just describing a hallway. Characters keep getting introduced to the story faster than I can memorize their names and remember their faces. In the beginning of the book, I had to repeatedly go back and check which character was which. As a result, the excessive details make the book seem a bit sluggish paced.

Once you get past all these points, it’s actually a great book – though there are still a few unanswered questions I’d like to know the answer to. What are Brother Mables’ motives? Who is he working with? Who were the Dolus running from? What were the Dolus frantically looking for in Larista? Hopefully, they’ll be answered in the second book of the trilogy.

Overall, this was a suspenseful book with dynamic characters and an engaging plot. The author’s writing style is descriptive, lively, and full of action. I’d recommend this to anyone who is looking for an exciting book to keep them on the edge of their seat. Until next time! ( )