I don't think I ever would've read this book if it weren't for book club. It felt pretty predictable at first and felt a lot like a love child of Sabriel and The Hunger Games but make it Game of Thrones. The pacing (probably due to the way it was narrarated) felt slow at first and I ended up listening at 1.5x speed in order to stay focused and intrigued. I was expecting to give this closer to 3 stars but the last quarter of the book had me quite surprised and intrigued by how events started turning around and playing out. I didn't know it was a series going into it and it left a decent cliff hanger at the end. Looking forward to reading the sequel later in the year, but not an immediate Next Read.