There is a lot going on in this story, and I really liked the premise - we follow Layla, who gets unwittingly entangled in the mysterious Dynasty´s dealings.

However, I found the writing clunky at times which took me out of the story. Some examples of this: Everybody has at least three different names which is extremely confusing to the reader. New worlds/beings/details get thrown in without much explanation, so I found myself not caring much about any of it.
We get a huge amount of detail on architectural features of every single building, as in paragraphs worth of railing/columns/wood or stone details despite them having no impact on the story.
I wish we would have gotten more such in-depth treatment of the main characters. We get a lot of action and described facial expressions i.e. of rage or repressed anger etc. but we know nothing about their actual motives. I did not feel connected to either of the main trio until the very end, and that may have to do with the action near the end rather than character growth.
The plot was very slow up to the middle, and I almost stopped reading there. The ending however, is action-packed albeit also confusing.

I did like the ideas of several worlds intermingling and the governmental issues that arise there, but these were just marginally talked about - I am guessing to be dealt with in later books. For me, the different types of beings have not been described in enough detail to distinguish them, or any of the conflicts explained enough.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC of this book.

Excellent book, loved it! Looking forward to more from this author! Apologies for the lateness of my review

This book is highly entertaining. It kept my mind engaged both during and after I would put the book down. I found my mind would wander back to the book during the day. The characters were well developed and engaging. The end of the book leaves me wanting to read the next book in line.

Wonderful little fantasy read that has fantastic theology/mythology as well as worldbuilding aspects. I usually don’t like this subgenre and I guess it’s technically a YA novel but man…it’s pretty violent for a YA novel (lots of death). Went and read the second book immediately. Highly recommend.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-copy of this novel!

I actually ended up quite liking this book. I will say that this book reads like a debut, but I wouldn't necessarily say that is a bad thing. The writing was a little clunky and the pacing wasn't great, but I still found myself interested in the story. I feel like it really started to get its footing at around the 70% mark. The story really began to pick up and I actually found myself excited to see what was going to happen next. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen in the next installment.