I was originally thinking I would only give this book four stars. Everything was objectively excellent, I just wasn't obsessed with it. However, it's getting four and a half because of the final few paragraphs of that epilogue. If you know, you know, lol! That was incredibly boss!
SPOILERS MOVING FORWARD!
The Feeling: From the first page, this book made me aware we were about to journey into an epic tale filled with steeds, battle, courage, duty, and honor. And even if I didn't read the first page, the cover tells you all that as well, haha!
The Writing: I really loved the courage it took to write in such a lyrical tone for the story. There were so many metaphors and poetic inner dialogue. And though it's my preferred writing style as well, I do know that way of storytelling is not always liked by everyone. I think I saw one review for this book or the next in the series where someone was saying they wished the author had gotten to the point of ideas quicker. On a similar note, the audio-book is quite long ( 15h and 35min) and it took me about three weeks to read it. To be fair, I didn't read every day, but that may be a deterrent for some readers.
The Characters: Rafi and Finnian were my favorite characters. Rafi, because he was hilarious and I relate to using humor to calm one's self when things are disastrous!😅 And watching his approach to life change from run and hide to stand and fight, was truly amazing. Finnian was a favorite because he was so incredibly loyal, while still having a world and life apart from Ceridwen, who I'm hoping will be his love interest in the next book!!
I felt really bad for both Ceridwen and Jakim. I hated the disrespect constantly thrown Ceridwen's way, and felt she really didn't deserve most of it. And for Jakim, I just really hope he gets a peaceful, happy ending since he's suffered so much.
There were many other characters who I really enjoyed, but there were also so many who infuriated me because they were either disrespectful to Ceridwen or were the actual villains of the story.
Flaws I noticed: One issue I had with the book was that character backstories were alluded to, but we were never given details. Granted, the author may not have had the time (the book is huge), but there was so much about Bear's personality and life we never touched on, so much of Jakim's travels from master to master we only briefly heard about, and so much of Rafi's escapes and years on the run that weren't fully flushed out. There were sentences that mentioned something here and there, but I would've liked to have a solid timeline to place events and to better get to know Bear since so much of the story surrounds the tragedy that happened to him.
Because I didn't think Bear was given much as a character he felt like just a filler for a dead brother. I would have liked to know why he was the father's favorite. More of what his relationship with Ceridwen was like, and more tidbits of simply who he was. Not knowing the details behind Jakim's journey from master to master didn't harm my enjoyment of the story, but I simply would have liked to know it. But it was not knowing the timeline of Rafi's years on the run that ended up confusing me the most since I thought he'd lived with his village for the full seven years, but I think the book said toward the end that he'd been taken in by the older man only two years prior to the story beginning.
The author probably did this to avoid information dumping since she already has so much to bring us up to speed on with the world and politics, the magical system, characters, etc. Thus, it's not a huge deal, it was just a bit disorientating at times.
A second issue was that, unless I missed it, characters' ages were never said. I can only guess that everyone is somewhere within the range of 16-22. I didn't expect that to bother me as much as it did, but just like being able to place events on a timeline, I also like to place characters' ages within the context of others around them.
A last issue was that it was difficult to remember who everyone was and all the different houses of chieftains. For instance, there's a certain individual who betrays them halfway through the book and I barely realized it was the same person who we'd been talking to earlier because I was having trouble connecting each name to each event and conversation they were a part of. However, this is a pretty standard and expected problem when reading a book with a large cast and lots of moving pieces, so this isn't an issue that lowers the star count for me.
The content: There are three religions within the book. One seems to be a reflection of Christianity, one is a religion with several goddesses, and one is an evil cult. I am curious to keep reading and see where the author is going to go in this department. That being said, the names of the different deities are used as swear words by the characters, and there is also quite a lot of violence.
To conclude: Overall, it was a very good book and I'm already halfway through the second! I'm most excited to see Ceridwen and Finnian hopefully fall in love!
