The Bone Witch just suffered from a bit of first book syndrome for me. I'm interested to see where the series goes because it does have a fascination world and a lot of potential but this book had a lot of exposition and very slow plot development which didn't super impress me.

Everything about The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco spoke to me. I loved the cover, I love stories about witches, I had super high expectations for this book going into it and was worried it would let me down, as a few other reviews didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm.

But I liked Tea immediately and I enjoyed the format the story was told in, with Tea in present day introducing each chapter, and then flashing back to tell her story. I enjoyed watching Tea apprentice as a Bone Witch and start to grow and see the world from a different perspective. I really loved her relationship with her brother Fox, and his protectiveness and loyalty to her. It was such a strong bond and I loved how even when she started to apprentice for something bigger, she never forgot him.

I also enjoyed the flowering affection between Tea and Prince Kance. It wasn’t a cheesy instalove situation, though there was definitely intrigue and attraction. I enjoyed how it was sprinkled in among the rest of the story and never fully took dominance, though still played an important and interesting part. This is my favourite way to read about love interests.

I felt that all the characters were really strong here, even the people we only catch glimpses of at the beginning, they make an impact. Prince Kance’s cousin Kalen has that dark and brooding intrigue about him, the ladies of the Fallen Leaf add a touch of that mean girl competition, even Tea’s former coworkers-come-maids add another layer of depth and another way to watch Tea grow and interact in different situations. I loved the well rounded cast and how strongly they all worked together.

The world that they dwell in is not at a loss for its own depth and magic. This is a very rich story, but not one that has a lot of action really fast. There are beasts that are slain and situations that need to be resolved, but there’s not necessarily a lot of action or immediate gratification, this is very much Tea telling her story. Even towards the end, the last half of the book doesn’t really increase in speed, but we’re being taken on a journey into the depths of Dark magic and the slow but growing build makes the journey a full experience.

There were a few things that came up that I found confusing. A few words that were a part of this world that I didn’t feel I was given enough context of, so it left me a little uncertain. This sometimes made the overall story a bit complicated for me to follow, I wish there was a bit more time spent on describing certain elements or explaining exactly how they worked, so that we weren’t just quickly introduced to and left to take at face value. Unless I just missed something?

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the ending, which I did not see coming at all. I can’t wait to read what comes next because I need to know how things ended up the way they did! I feel completely satisfied by this read, it was exactly what I was hoping it would be.

I wanted to like this book, I really, really did. I was super excited about this book when it was announced, it was actually one of my most anticipated books of the year. Sadly however, I was disappointed. I am giving this a book a 1 out of 5 stars even though I would like to give it more but I did DNF this book. The concept of the book was really good but the execution of it was a little too slow for my liking. It actually came very close to putting me in a book slump. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of how the book flashes back and forth from the present to the past. The book itself, as in the writing and the ideas behind everything are interesting. I liked the ideas of different types of witches and what each one brings to the table. The world building is good but I feel like the book is just a little description heavy and slow…very slow.

I may try reading this book again in the future and if I do and finish it than my rating will change as I only give 1 star ratings to books I either hate with a capital H (which is rare) or books that I DNF.

I give this book a 1 out of 5 stars.

Will update with links to where I posted my review online closer to the release date. (Final review might change slightly but will have the same basic message).

The Bone Witch has an amazing sounding premise, interesting writing, and semi-diverse characters. Unfortunately, it's a book that sounds better in summary than it proves to be in execution.

Premise:

In the grip of sorrow, Tea accidentally raises her brother from the dead. Her newfound ability sends her into an apprenticeship to become a Bone Witch, or a Dark Asha.

Dark Asha generally serve to protect the kingdom from monsters called daeva, which periodically rise from the dead and wreak havoc. Bone witches are rare, and so for the sake of the world's stability, Tea must study hard to harness a power within that she never knew she had.

This all sounds pretty promising, but reading through Tea's journey bored me to tears. I had to physically will myself to pick this up and it took me two months to finally finish it.

The story largely consists of walking you through every painstaking detail of Tea's apprenticeship over the course of two years.

I felt like it kept going in loops: "Tea's learning this now. Ok Tea's learning that again, but she's a little more advanced now. Tea has started learning this new thing here."

It was just so repetitive & boring. This book is overstuffed with descriptions of Tea's life in training and severely lacking in compelling action scenes.

When we aren't following Tea's training schedule we're listening to her superiors make obscure references to other Kingdoms, to past wars, fallen heroes, and lurking threats.

Name drops everywhere and mentions of events that mostly had no impact on our present story line. I felt lost while wading through these history lessons, and largely apathetic about keeping it all straight.

Writing:

The writing at times was beautiful, but just as often it was convoluted. Run-on sentences that carried on for half the page with poor word choices in some areas.

TOO. MUCH. DESCRIPTION.

If I knew anything about this book, I knew precisely what each character was wearing down to the individual stitches. The clothing and food details were overwhelmingly superfluous.

It got to the point where I just stopped trying to picture it. It was mentally exhausting.

Every so often I would find myself completely captivated by a sentence or two, but there wasn't enough good here to outweigh the bad.

I feel Rin Chupeco has a lot of potential, I could see her writing style morphing into something amazing with a bit more experience.

Characters:

I appreciated that these characters were racially diverse. It's wonderful to see different cultural influences and an array of skin colors in our books.

But personality-wise I found almost every character incredibly dull and predictable.

I wanted desperately to like the relationship that bloomed between Tea and the brother that she raised from the dead, Fox. But a large portion of the interactions between characters felt forced.

I didn't buy Tea's friendships or her rivalries. I wasn't invested in anyone's cause. I don't even have a favorite character. That's how uninteresting they were.

At the end of the day, I feel like this story had potential but that it could use a lot more editing before publication. It's missing some vital pieces of characterization and doesn't deliver a compelling narrative.

I feel a little bit like I’ve been robbed of a five-star experience. Everything about this on the surface screams like a book I would love. It’s got a great title, a beautiful cover, a cool dark premise, and gorgeous aesthetics. It’s one of those stories that could have been the perfect book if there was more action. Since it doesn’t, it reads like many first novels in a series do: it introduces the world building and characters and does little else. I’m prepared to tentatively let it slide when I know first novels aren’t always the best novels when it comes to series. If the next book gets more into the nitty gritty battle sequences, I’m on board. We’ll just have to wait and see…

What this book does do really well, however, is give you an immersive, ornately curated experience. It’s like walking through a beautifully curated museum exhibit, full of intricate details that draw out hints of the past and tell a story about the wealth of a culture. There’s this very carefully put together array of Japanese-inspired wardrobes and culture and I feel very much like I’m opening a window into the history of this magical, mythical place. Every robe is intricately detailed and every tradition entwined in becoming a bone witch is extremely rich.Yet ultimately it’s too detached from what truly happened with time that we just don’t get the meat of the story. There’s no knitty-gritty action or juicy details. It is beautiful and full of life, but because it’s nothing but an exhibit behind glass, you don’t get the full story of what made these people tick. Everything’s already been long lost to legends of the past.

Without a doubt, this book is beautifully written. If anything, Chupeco prioritises aesthetic over plot and in this way, it succeeds far more as a work of art than as a novel. And maybe that’s not so bad. Maybe The Bone Witch is ushering in a new definition of what a novel can be.

All I know is, I had a really nice time at the museum.

"The Bone Witch" manages to be both standard YA fare and gorgeously different. Tea lives in a world where everyone has a magical heartsglass that expresses their abilities and their mood. The younger sister of two low-level witches, Tea expects to become one herself. But everything changes when her heartsglass turns silver after she raises her brother from the dead.

The bulk of the story follows Tea after she is taken to be trained as a dark asha, a kind of necromancer-witch whose abilities include raising the dead. The basic arc of the training story is the basic arc of YA training stories everywhere: young, naive, but powerful protagonist is transported from their home and dumped into an arcane and mysterious world, where they are bullied and assigned tedious tasks until they manifest their unusual talents and begin their meteoric rise. What makes "The Bone Witch" different is the exotic richness of Tea's world: the asha are somewhere between witches and geisha, and the descriptions of the clothing and events are sumptuous and compelling. Not to mention the food. The society Tea lives in is vibrantly multicultural, with characters speaking Russian and eating Persian and Indian food. Sometimes this works well, and sometimes it feels like a bit of a hodge-podge rather than an organically grown world, but it certainly makes the book stand out against the general YA background.

Although for me the descriptions are the best part of the book, there's also plenty of action, including a unique magical system and a showdown with a dragon (I'll stop there to avoid further spoilers!). That being said, readers who hate cliffhangers and more complex narrative forms should be forewarned: this is the first part of a series, and the story is told by two alternating narrators: a bard whom Tea has summoned to tell her story, and the flashbacks of Tea herself. I personally love the serial form, and I didn't find the dual narrators difficult to follow at all, but because of the complexity of form, as well as the darkness of theme--Tea does, after all, raise the dead--this is probably more appropriate for older YA readers. An interesting and often beautiful and evocative addition to the YA genre. Plus a stunning cover!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book.

I try really hard to read every book that I am granted through NetGalley, in order to write a thoughtful review. But I'm afraid I had to DNF this one about a third of the way in. The older I get, I just can't put the time into reading something I'm really not enjoying (and my TBR list is WAAY too long as it is.)

I read a lot of YA fantasy, so I thought this would be right up my alley. But right from the beginning, I felt like there was way too much "other-world" stuff - new words, names, etc. - that I was having a really hard time remembering (or caring about). And the descriptions of the world, and particularly the fashion, just went on and on. I know sometimes I complain about not enough world-building in fantasy books, but this seemed to be too far on the other end of the spectrum. There was so much of it being described, again I was having a hard time keeping things straight. The author's writing itself is well done - there's just too darn much of it.

And maybe because it was hard to feel like I was in their world, the characters felt kind of flat to me as well. And really, not much happened to keep my interest in the plot in the part I did read. I might have kept going, except then I read some reviews which implied that the last part of the book is even slower moving than the beginning. This one just wasn't for me. If you like really long descriptions, and particularly if fashion is your thing, maybe it would all be more interesting for you.

2.5 stars, really, but I would have felt bad giving this book two stars, because it wasn't a bad book! It was just...an incredibly dull one. This book is boring. If I had to dress it up a bit I would call it a coming of age story more than anything, but even that isn't really accomplished well, because the protagonist, Tea, doesn't change noticeably from when we first meet her. In fact it's difficult to get a handle on her personality at all. She's not passive; there are definitely instances where I can see her iron will shine through, but these moments are few and far between, and do little to make up for her otherwise rather bland personality.

Tea is not the only character who is bland; Kance, the supposed love interest, is literally nothing but lines on a page to me. He may as well not exist. Tea's brother didn't seem to have much of a personality beyond supporting Tea. Some side characters were somewhat fleshed out, but not enough.

The two main things I liked about this book were the prose and the development. Some reviews here are complaining about purple prose, but I've always been a fan of flowery descriptions, so that was lovely. The author's writing is solid. Likewise, the worldbuilding, often lacking in YA, is also good - perhaps not as rich as I would have liked, but I truly felt like I was in a completely different world, which is good. However, this may have come back to bite the book in the bum at some points, because it was kind of hard to keep up sometimes, and this is coming from a seasoned fantasy reader. I still don't understand who/what the Faceless are or what they want. I'm not super clear on the whole resurrecting daeva and then putting them back in the grave thing. A lot of little things are unclear.

As it is, my main problem is that there was just no plot! None! Literally nothing happens in this book! Which is such a shame because it starts off really well, and the promise of necromancy was so enticing. In the end, the book does nothing but take us through the protagonist's day to day as she goes from asha apprentice to full-fledged asha. If the author wanted to go the way of contemplative coming of age story, there needed to be more character development. Right now, the book is awkwardly stuck between two undetermined states, and it was a damn job to get through the entire thing.

Even the Big Reveal at the end, which should have been exciting, was just lame. We didn't really know the Villain well enough to mourn what happened, and when the Villain was revealed, they talked like the most cliched Evil Villain ever. I thought I had somehow started reading a 1950s comic - a really bad one. The dialogue was really, really terrible.

Another thing that bugged me was the representation of Drychta, the nation that is very, very clearly modeled on the Middle East. Specifically, the Gulf Region. Must Arabs be the barbaric, super conservative, honor-killing weirdos everywhere we go? Even in fantasy worlds? This was so unoriginal, and for an author who champions diversity, extremely disappointing.

Also - and this is more a personal pet peeve than anything - I went through 3/4 of the book thinking the Bard was a woman, and I was really excited about that, since the norm in fantasy is that Bards are men. When I realized the Bard character actually is a man, I was not happy.

Hopefully the sequel is better - it seems like it's setting up for something interesting, though we were left with pretty much no idea what's going on, still, or why the protagonist is exiled now. I don't know whether I'll read it yet, but I guess the fact that I'm still pondering is a good sign?

First and foremost, I think this book feels like a young-adult Memoirs of a Geisha with magic - in a really good way. The world-building is well done, the imagery in the book paints a beautiful picture, and I especially love the descriptions of the beautiful costumes.

The book is told in alternating chapters from the past and from the present with the two stories converging as the book goes on. Tea sort of reminds me of Katniss from the Hunger Games, in that she's thrown into a world she didn't choose, and yet excels at almost every aspect, and ends up with more responsibility than she ever wanted. I didn't mind Tea, but she wasn't my favorite either. I really liked the supporting characters more than Tea. The world-building is really my favorite thing about it, and ultimately, the ending pushed my rating to four and a half stars. The ending is so unexpected, and I will absolutely read the rest of the series to find out how we get there. There is a huge shocker at the end that the past account has not caught up to yet, and it is such an unexpected twist for books of this genre in general that I can't wait to read more.

An elegant fantasy novel wrapped in Asian culture, Rin Chupeco’s The Bone Witch is an endearing coming of age story set in a world of dark magic.
With a narrative that’s intercut between the past and present day, it tells the story of Tea, a talented Asha who can raise the dead and her training to become a powerful and potentially dangerous witch.
A well paced story, rich in Geisha traditions and mythology, along with an interesting protagonist, keep things ticking along before a darker ending that sets the tone for a grander story in the last two books.
A wonderful start to what promises to be a fantastic young adult series.

“The Bone Witch” is a satisfying fantasy filled with well-researched mythology and folklore that is exactly what I needed to read right now.

Tea finds out she is a Bone Witch when she accidentally raises her brother from the dead at his funeral. As you would imagine, that was disturbing to anyone witnessing it. The rest of the book is split between her story from that point and on into her training as an asha (witch) and the present, in which she is in a vastly different situation recounting it all to an exiled bard from another kingdom. It doesn’t create confusion, as the story comprises the main chapters and the present is in italics between them.

My favorite part is that much of the story reaches a conclusion, while some remains a mystery, and other parts have foreshadowing you can only guess at what it means. And the ending. Oh man. The ending.

If you love mythology, folklore, revenants, kickass girls who turn into kickass women, diverse characters, just a touch of romance, all-around creepy stuff, and Tom Hiddleston (I’ll leave it to you to figure that one out), then “The Bone Witch” is for you. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

The summary sounded fascinating & while I was excited to start this book, it was too much description for me. I wanted more plot.

I really enjoyed this book and how at the end of every chapter it was set in the present while the rest of the chapter was her telling her story. I think it was the best way to tell the story and made put you in the same position as the man hearing the story for the first time.

I first heard of this book at a book convention/signing that I went to because I got a poster with the book cover on it. I had that poster on my wall for about a month before I decided to change my room around and now it is stored under my bed with all my other posters. I fell in love with this cover and put the book on my TBR as soon as I got home that day.

The main character, Tea, was someone who I could relate to and I loved her. She was thrust into a new environment away from her family and she still flourished. Sometimes a character will become whiney and annoying in situations like this but thankfully, she didn’t. I think I loved Tea more in the present when she would talk to the person who was recording her stories because she sounds incredibly mature. Her outlook on the world changes and that adds more to the story that she is telling to the Bard. I fell like this is really confusing but I can’t really explain it. Basically, at the end of every chapter, the narration would be in the present. This, while confusing in the beginning, became some of my favorite parts in the book. I ended up looking forward to reading what Tea was doing in her present day life.

I will say that the prince and his friend had very similar names and because of this I became incredibly confused. I would have to turn back 6 or 7 pages just to remind myself who exactly I was reading about.

I don’t know why but I don’t have much to say about this book and I don’t know if that's a good or bad thing. I think, in this case, it’s not a terrible thing because I actually really enjoyed this book. I just don’t really know what to say. I don’t have much to criticize or praise because this book didn’t make an incredible impact. It is because of this that I might not continue reading the series or trilogy. But I might. This book was incredibly interesting but I don’t think I will remember much about it when the next book comes out. I might, though. So I’m not completely saying that I defiantly won’t read it but if I have to re-read this book, I may not. That sounds harsh but the second book doesn’t even have an estimated publishing date so I mean it’s not entirely unreasonable.

I might sound like I'm repeating myself but to me, it doesn't seem to make much sense if I don't.

I couldn't decide if I should give this book 3.5 stars or 4 stars and I still can't to be honest. I think if I couldn't give half stars I would end up giving it 4 stars like I did on Goodreads but I would much prefer to give it 3.5 stars. Even with this rating, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy and young adult books, but I wouldn't re-read it unless I planned on reading the next book in the series.

You've been Chopped!
This story started in a bad place. I get why it started where it did, but nothing happens for the first 50% of the book. Everything that happened in the first half of the book could have been summed up in a few paragraphs, which would have left the rest of the book for actual plotting and action and... something. Anything!

More Textbook than Story
I love world-building. I find it intricate and fascinating and huge part of the story and plot, but there is such a thing as too much world building. That is when there is more world-building offered than actual action or plot, which is exactly what happened in this story. Sadly, there was so much information about this world and so little context offered that I retained next to nothing. Thus, even the extravagant world-building fell flat.

Who was the MC again?
It's quite a shame, but Tea was not memorable. I learned more and felt more about the other characters than I ever cared about her. She was flat. She was boring. She didn't care about anything or take any actions. She simply... let the world move her around. Frankly, she didn't have a personality and I don't care about 2D characters with no personality. What's worse is that her deceased, risen-from-the-dead brother has more personality than she does.

That Ending Though
I decided to read this all the way through (because I don't DNF). When it started to pick up after the half-way mark, I thought maybe it would have a redeeming ending. Maybe something amazing would happen. Maybe the ending would be able to make up for the garbage first half of the book aaaaand... no. -.- Nope. The ending simply fell into the world of the cliche, the 'what the hell is going on,' and the 'well, I saw that coming twelve chapters ago.'

I received an advanced copy of The Bone Witch from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes are from an uncorrected and unfinalized text.

What is The Bone Witch about?

A bard has a dream that leads him to Tea, an exiled Bone Witch. The story is told in the present from the perspective of the Bard as he gets to know the exiled witch, and from the perspective of Tea as she recounts her story in the past.

The Good & The Bad

You must think me too fastidious, listing an asha's hua in such detail every time I talk about one
Yes! Yes I do.

Every time we met someone we had to learn their backstory. Where they came from, what their family was like, what their goals were. Tea described what they wore and what they were holding and what the thing they were holding looked like. There was so so so much describing. I don't care to know all these details about someone if that person is never going to do anything.

And every time we saw a new place we had to know all about the architecture and the people there and what they were doing and what they were wearing. And how many rooms were in this house and what each one was used for. Not that anything ever happens in the cities or the house to make the information relevant.

The book is Tea telling the bard what happened in her life, and it very much reads like that. Rather than experiencing the story first-hand, we are often just told what happened. These are the people who lived in the house. Here is a list of the ways in which I was poorly treated by this person. This is what my daily schedule looked like. These were the foods we ate. We don't see Tea develop friendships but are rather informed that the friendships exist.

Know the people you entertain. [...] Our opinions do not matter, and if you have to swallow your pride to keep them happy, then so be it.

Being an asha is considered rather prestigious and powerful, but it really shouldn't be. The world of The Bone Witch is ruled by men. The asha, all of whom are women, don't do important things but rather entertain important people, who all just happen to be men. They can wield magic but spend most of their time learning to sing and play music and dance for the pleasure of the men who actually do stuff. The highest an asha can really rise is the very exciting position of wife-of-someone-who-is-actually-important. Sure, there are references in the story to famous asha who did famous things in history. And it's said that the asha fight in times of war. But in the present-day world we read about, an asha's purpose is to be entertaining to the important men around her. I could understand this if it were some dystopian world the characters were trying to change, but really they all seem excited about their life as asha.

The book wasn't all bad. It definitely picked up as it went along. Had the entire book been written the way the last 30% or so was written, it could have been an okay book. And I really enjoyed the magic system. Besides being able to control the elements, Asha could create runes that would make someone appear prettier or more graceful. I thought this was a really cool take on magic, that rather than change people themselves, it just changed how they were perceived. There were also attempts at addressing the sexism in the world, but more in the form of "why can't men be asha" than "why do asha do nothing but entertain powerful men".

My Review
⭐⭐

I give this book 2 stars. Very little happened in this book. It was far too slow-paced to keep my attention. I also found the writing style odd; at times it seemed as if I was reading a summary of a book rather than the book itself, though the writing style and pace improve throughout the book. I was also very bothered by the sexism in the world. There were pieces of it that were challenged, but it was mostly just accepted, even described positively. But perhaps that will be addressed in book two. While I wasn't a fan of The Bone Witch, the world definitely has potential and I could see this becoming a good series with a rocky start.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Witch is a YA fantasy novel written by Rin Chupeco. It is the first entry in a planned series.

Tea (whose name is not pronounced like the beverage) is a young girl living in a world surrounded by magic. Witches are valued for their power, but when Tea accidentally brings her brother back from the dead, she learns that there is a limit to society’s tolerance for witchcraft.

Bone witches are scorned, but they are also an integral component in keeping the world a safe place. Bone witches are a scarce commodity, so Tea is fortunate to find a mentor who can help her. Most of the book is devoted to Tea undergoing training to understand how to utilize her power.

There is a lot going on in The Bone Witch, but not nearly as much necromancy as one might expect from a book featuring a protagonist who is a necromancer. The situation is reminiscent of Westeros with numerous factions and plenty of political intrigue. Numerous characters are introduced, and keeping track of everyone can be difficult. There is an appendix at the end of the book, which will be very helpful for readers who have a physical copy of the book.

The plot moves slowly, despite the fact that Tea’s powers are so advanced that she moves through training at a faster rate than the other asha (witches). Chupeco focuses on world building rather than character development. This is not necessarily a negative; Chupeco presents vivid descriptions of clothing and food, and she is clearly a talented writer. Part of the reason for the slow pace might be due to the shifting perspective. The chapters alternate between the present day and the past. It’s clear that Something Big happened to Tea, but the details do not emerge until the end of the book. Chupeco uses this technique to create a sense of intrigue, and it worked. I kept reading because I needed to know how Tea ended up in her current predicament.

I would recommend The Bone Witch to fans of YA fantasy. If you’re looking for something fast-paced and full of action, you might feel restless while reading this book. It’s clear that Chupeco put a lot of work into Tea’s world, and ends the book on a tense note, making the reader anxious to find out how the conflict will be resolved in the next book.

This is one of my favorite books coming out this year and one of the best young adult fantasies I've read in a long time. Chupeco's world building is done carefully and precisely, revealing the pertinent information a little bit at a time. The characters are almost all female and all are strong, brave, courageous, and intelligent in their own right. The plot is complex but well thought out and the writing is cinematic. If this doesn't get optioned for a movie, I'll be surprised.

Imagine a world where geisha-like women are some of the most respected political leaders and warriors of their land. They're called asha and they start training very young, on their Heartsrune day, when the power of their hearts are pulled into a glass heart that sits around their neck. The heart power is kind of like a mist and for most people it's pink or red, though the colors change with emotion and sickness. If you're an asha, your heart's color is different--silver. Unless you can draw the Dark, then there's no mist that comes from your heart.

Drawing the Dark means you can raise the dead and Tea, the main character and badass supreme, raises her brother on accident after he's killed by a daeva. The daeva are horrible monsters that rise every few years and attack the people of the land. Unless the Dark asha get there first to raise it and then immediately kill it. Dark asha have the power to control minds and their ability to compel daeva (and humans) is strong. For this reason, they are feared and ultimately reviled by the people of the land who call them Bone Witch.

We follow Tea from the moment she raises her brother all the way through her asha training and her first mission. She is a captivating character and the pages just fly by, while you root for her success and wonder about the implied dangers she must face. As she learns more about the politics of the country and meets more nobles, she begins to fall for the prince. The love story is secondary here and believable. Both things I can appreciate since the prominence of the "girl-meets-boy" trope in YA is way over done.

I highly recommend this books for those that love "The Uglies" series by Scott Westerfeld or "Daughter of Smoke and Bone". This could also easily be an adult crossover for those that liked GoT or Wheel of Time.

This novel seems to come from a similar idea as <em>Sabriel</em>, but is not as well executed. The author executes some interesting world-building, but may be trying to include too many imaginary cultures at once to give any of them the thoroughness really required (and includes enough thinly-veiled real-world stereotypes to make me kind of uncomfortable). The choice to have the two intertwined narratives not meet up is an odd one, and has the effect of the framing story spoiling many major plot points of the main story in a disappointing way. It had enough going for it that the next book in the series could turn the whole thing around, though.

This is my Rin Chupeco book.

I was very disappointed. I thought the book would be better from what I read in the description. I found it to be veeeeery slow. Not only that, it had way too much information crammed up and it was very hard to follow. I felt like it was never going to end.

I liked about 2 scenes where good conversation happened.

The ending has a name that is the hook to the second book.