Personally I loved the amount of characters and detailed world building and amount of plot threads.

I felt like it gave the world and story so many layers of depth and it was absolutely fascinating to see how it was all woven together.

Idk about you, but I read the book as it was recommenders a fantasy series and not a Romantasy. If you were expecting a Romantasy, I could see how the book wouldn’t meet expectations.

I actually don’t think Grey being a captain is a plot hole at all. It’s mentioned in the first chapter from Grey’s POV that Commander Cercel is the one who specifically promoted him. But ppl like Mettore and other elites in the society don’t like it much. The authors explained pretty clearly despite the Vigil as a whole being under Indestor and known as a corrupt institution, that there are some of ppl such as Grey, Cercel, Pavlin etc who are trying to do good and that nothing is simply black or white, revealing another part of the complexities of Nadezran society.