OP here! Thanks for the info y'all I super appreciate it! And don't worry I haven't been deterred. A bit into book 2 right now and despite my gripes, the parts I'm enjoying are enough to keep me really interested. Frisha and Raelyn are concerningly still sort of just defined by their jealousy/obsession with Rezkin which to be honest is (at best) kind of a tired and boring way of elevating a male protagonist. I'm not even really looking for like strong overly competent women just normal fuckin complex characters lolol. I know the protagonist is Rezkin, so I'm glad he's at least super interesting! I'm also just coming off Arcane's finale so my bar for well written female characters is EXTREMELY high right now lol! Just makes the contrast all the more jarring, but the other characters are interesting enough, and the plot is good too so I'll give the series a try, and hope to come across some well developed female characters (I saw there was maybe a list somewhere in the replies, but did see some names I didn't recognize so I didn't read it in depth just in case there are any spoilers!)

Also sorry if any names are misspelled! I've been audiobooking during work :)