Firstly I have to say that I loved the cover for this one, and the premise was intriguing. There were a few places however, where the execution failed. I think the primary issue was there were aspects of the worldbuilding and character backstories, that gave the impression that there should have been an earlier book or more development, which was a little jarring and left me feeling a little lost at place.
That said it was an enjoyable enough read, and the plot and writing flowed well, and I did enjoy the characters. There were some darker themes, and while the main protagonist is a teen, this book could not and should not be pushed into the YA section.

This book was an ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

5 Stars of encouragement because it's pretty AMAZING!

I love the cover, it's so beautiful.

Dear miss/mister. Teddy Baire, I hope that you're working on a sequel because that ending was not enough for me, I want more, I need more, more of Rana, the Black Jewel, Victor and all that crazy wonderful and amazing world that you've created. For a first book, I've to say that it was pretty good and interesting.
By the way, I don't know why but I felt that there should be a prequel to this one in order to understand some events and some characters' stories.
Anyway, this book starts with a 13 years old girl Rana with a mysterious story and who everybody in the kingdom is trying to find due to her odd magical power that even her has no clue about it. She is found and forced to be part of an adult harsh world, she encounter characters who either try to help her or to hurt her.
Then , we have Victor Krill, the Sixth general in the army of the kingdom of Mari, who has no magical power and was going to retreat from this position but then he is forced to the mission of finding Rana. He is also a character with a mysterious past.
What I also love about this author is that she/he wasn't lazy because she/he even worked on the secondary characters by making them so much absorbing who made the story much more alive.

This is a book with a teen girl as a main character that we follow her adventures but let's be honest, it's absolutely not a book for teens due to some adult themes and scenes. In other words, there is abuse, rape, prostitution and a lot of violence and this is why I was so hesitant about giving this book 5 stars.
I can't say that I didn't like this book because I really loved it. Also It kept me interested and that's what I'm always looking for in my readings. Anyway, I really hope that this book will get the success that it deserves. I've to point that there were some spelling mistakes here and there, I don't know if the author was notified about them or not but it doesn't diminish from the quality of the book and that it's a good story.
I'm really waiting for the next book of this author and I hope and wish that it will a sequel to "QK&M".
Just enjoy because It's pretty AMAZING!