I received this book in exchange for an honest review (albeit a while ago) from the publisher, this has not altered my opinion of this book. I would like to thank 47North and NetGalley for the free copy.

This was one ride of a fantasy story. I ended up getting the audiobook off Kindle Unlimited which really helped with my reading of it simply because I wanted to read it all the time. The entire story itself was an interesting ride of who to trust and watching naïve characters grow and become just a bit more worldly. There were puzzles, betrayals, possessions, magic, madness, and many other things that ticked so many boxes of what I love to read in high fantasy books. As the first book in a trilogy, this did a wonderful job of setting us up for the remaining two books and for giving us the broad strokes of world development. The characters were different and so individual, it was almost refreshing to see just how different their motives were and how much they all had at stake, all banking on one person that none of them truly trusted.

Annon is easily my favorite character of this book, but I've always loved the characters that are closer to nature and any sort of fantastical druidic lore I can get my hands on. His development from basically an adult child to a young man who is learning a lot about himself and the world around him, questioning everything was really interesting and fun to watch. Hettie is probably one of the most interesting characters and I loved her spunk and sass. She is a force to be reckoned with and even after a hard life she is still growing and developing. Peadrin was honestly one character I wasn't sure what to do with all the time, mostly because he felt the least developed at first, but as the story continued he became more and more fun and more and more interesting. I can't wait to see where our characters end up.

Overall, this book was a great introduction to the world of Mirrowen and the magic and politics there. It's a high fantasy filled to the brim with culture, politics, conflict, and mistrust. I can't wait to continue with the series. I am only sad it took me so long to read it. This gets a 5 out of 5.

Really good start to series.