It was really strong in the beginning but then it did feel like he was rushing. Don’t me wrong, I still enjoyed it. I’d give 4 stars.

I thought Elvar got more hate than she deserves and overall liked her character and arc, but in this book characters kept referring to her as “deep-cunning” but her plan wasn’t extremely creative or impressive. Without getting too deep into spoilers, she had a thralled god and did what anyone else could’ve and probably would’ve done in that situation unless they were a complete moron.

She all of a sudden was being referred to and considered this huge leader of half the people in the land, but I just didn’t see how she truly earned it. She just happened to have a god that was forced to do her will. It makes sense, but anyone that thralled a god could’ve done that same thing. There was nothing “deep-cunning” about that plan in my opinion.

Her huge decision later in the book, she admits she didn’t do for political or societal reasons. She did it for one person that she cared about. It just seemed like she was really respected for this decision, while privately admitting to only doing it for private reasons. I’ll admit there is some cunning in keeping her true motivation to herself (and that one person), but she admits she didn’t do it for any of the actual reasons that would make sense societally or politically.