This seemed a promising story to begin with, but I soon experienced a number of problems. I'm used to fantasy where the reader is dropped into the situation which only gradually becomes clear as the world building develops. But here the structure of the novel was almost intended to confuse. The initial chapter has the female protagonist, Maia, interacting with an old man who has been teaching her to read in secret because in this world women are banned from doing so on pain of death (shades of The Handmaid's Tale). But it eventually transpires that this is due to the possibility of women educating themselves in a type of spell lore which could result in them becoming deadly to all around them.

In the same opening chapter, Maia's mother gives birth to (yet another) stillborn child and Maia witnesses a terrible argument between her parents which is the beginning of the rift that will lead to her own predicament as the disowned daughter of the king. But after this opener, the book switches to several years later when she is a grown woman and has already visited a ruined abbey where her father sent her on a mission. The events at the abbey are not shown, probably because they would be a huge spoiler for the major problem that faces Maia later, but it means that there is a big disconnect in the story. In Chapter 2 Maia is running for her life through forest in the company of a man, who is apparently her bodyguard, from men who it is eventually revealed are from an order of mages except they aren't called such in this series. Given the missing events just before this happened, it was almost like reading a book where someone has torn out a chapter.

The book subsequently performs several such switches without benefit of a chapter subheading such as 'five years earlier' or similar that would have helped. Presumably this is because it transpires that Maia is actually blacking out and 'dreaming' vivid recollections of past events so the events being recalled are not the real past but her memory of it. For me that is academic and it would have avoided some confusion if there had been subheadings to give a clue of when in the timeline events were supposed to be occurring.

There were lots of other confusing aspects. The two magical systems or groups of people who practiced them were never really distinguished, in terms of how their powers work. But the history where one lot left the land and then came back and the others usurped their place but then allowed them back to ripoff their technology was not clearly established at all. It seemed to have taken place in the time of Maia's several great grandmother who was an Aldermaston in charge of an abbey, but it was also unclear as to whether that character had left or stayed and how her 'tome', as books are known, came to be handed down the female line.

Some aspects are included to make the setting a bit different - writing seems to be by engraving on metal sheets rather than with ink on parchment, which seems unnecessarily high tech and awkward. Terms are borrowed from the real world but given different meanings - a collier is a coal miner in real life, not someone who looks after horses as it is in the story, Aldermaston is a place where atomic research is carried out, not a rank equivalent to bishop or similar, a hetaera was the name given to courtesans in ancient Greece who were the only women allowed to be highly educated, rather than someone possessed by what we would call a demon (the book uses another term), Whitsunday is a particular Christian festival/holiday rather than something in the pagan religion(s) practiced by the people in this story. This all just jars the reader and throws them out of the story.

Also, a main problem for me was that the character of Maia was unconvincing. Despite her father's outrageous treatment of her and her mother she still loves him - though maybe this was meant to be drawing on historical precedent since the situation of Maia and her mother reminded me of Mary Tudor and her mother Katherine of Aragon, though with elements of Cinderella given Maia's treatment as the lowest scullery maid. Because of her 'possession' Maia is rather a passive character who spends her time escaping from place to place, being captured and then rescued, nearly always by men. I found the ending weak as I was too distracted with trying to assimilate the huge info dump introduced by a new character.

All in all, the book was a disappointment and even though I have the next two volumes, I'm not sure I can be bothered to tackle them. I discovered after reading this that there was a prequel series which might have made some of the background clear, but if it's necessary to read another series to have a chance of understanding this, that only shows this to have a major deficiency. So I can only award the book an OK 2 stars in view of my major disappointment with it. ( )

I received an advanced copy but just couldn't get into the story. It may be great but I couldn't get through three chapters. Not rating it.

Summer 2018; Trilogy review:

I should have written this one ages ago, in the summer when it was still fully flushed in my head and I was head over heels in that latest Jeff Wheeler series. While I still have my low-graded complaint that Wheeler continues to establish archetypes/monsters/magical objects and then drag them into each of his next non-world-connect stories without much explanation (instead, relying on the audience to know them already from earlier reads)--

-- what I remember loving most of all in this series was that it took the villain role (that of the Hetaira) and reinventing it. Our main character was suddenly in those shoes and we got to watch her navigate what good and ill comes of being labeled/touched by the darkness of the world. The sacrifices, the outcasting, the humility, all actions without knowing whether there could ever be a positive outcome after the earliest of mistakes.

I felt very intrigued by it and I was glad to see it's full circle in this trio. ( )

I was so lost

Interesting storyline. The memory recollection were a little jarring, but I get it. And yes, I’m going for the next one. But I think I’ll keep this one in my library for another look later ( )

Very well written. Continuing the Muirwood story. We ( )