I couldn't get into this book. The style just didn't work for me. Personal taste.

Un-put-downable! Maudlin, the one-time princess of Bruster and disgraced former queen of Ferren, is busily establishing a library when a message is delivered to her liege lord, the Roth, from a place called Saradena, a place no one has ever heard of. Soon messengers from allied kingdoms arrive, all having received the same written message, a message that the Saradenans will return in a year, and that when they do, the conditions of their treaty from long ago will be met, or the kingdoms will be attacked and destroyed. In a world that is largely illiterate, Maudlin is one of the few who can read the message, and is sent to a neighboring country to see if they have any books or writings that might show any previous encounter with Saradena, which they realize had to have happened generations earlier. So off Maudlin goes, on a mission fraught with difficulty. Will she be up to the task? who knows, but the story is compelling, the writing is excellent and I can't wait for the next book in the series!