Kim Harrison

My take on the book:

It was good! A very different pace than my normal books but that was fine :) The plot is great and compelling and it has magic and dragon-like creatures... who doesn't love that hmm?

World-building was great, no matter where we were in the world, everything was described with an eye for detail, but not too much, which made it easy to just flow with the story and not be annoyed.

Character development was excellent! We see both Strell and Alissa grow (a lot actually) during their journey to the Hold and during their trials and tribulations at the Hold itself, growing up and growing closer to each other (which was so cute and had me face palming a couple of times... cute!).
We get a lot of insight into their reasoning, what their history is and why they are on this journey. Even when we look at our villain, the evil Keeper Bailic, do we get a lot of information, though at this moment, I'm still wondering about the big 'why'.

Pacing and flow were decent. Mind you, in my opinion, it is a very slow paced story with only the last few chapters that have a faster flow while working to the end of book 1.

The book in itself is well written, with no (noticeable) errors. There is also no sex in this book (if that is important to you).

All in all, a good start to a promising series, though perhaps for me a tad too slow and uneventful. However, I will surely be reading part 2 sometime soon (when I have a lot of spare time on my hands).… (mer)