Great set-up and very intriguing protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your perspective). The expository style and endless info-dumping eventually got too tedious. I also kept thinking I might like the whole thing more if it was in 3rd POV rather than 1st. I might go back and read the ending at some point since many reviews say it's the best part of the book but who knows. This title might be just right for some readers but the writing/narrative style just made it too easy to put down for me. ( )

I was only able to finish half of this book before I was too annoyed to keep reading. I was so excited with this book and was really let down. Girl on the path of cold blooded revenge who must infiltrate the high society that enslaves her people and killed her family, awesome! In actuality a girl who whines a lot about not being loved or liked by that same society or by the people that SHE is keeping enslaved. I absolutely get her doing awful things because she is pretending to be a normal slave master and can't show empathy to the slaves that she is descended from or the slave masters will be suspicious but she keeps her people enslaved and kills some of them and then when they hate her she is all sad and angry. What did she expect? They don't know you are going to kill all the Masters! They just know you just had this little girl killed and forcing this one guard into your bed! " What have I done for this man-for any of the slaves of Hans Lollik- to hate me the way they do?""I've sacrificed myself for this...and rather than meeting me with thanks and love, I'm met with such hatred" SERIOUSLY? Unless I missed something major her whole motivation behind this plot is to kill the Masters for killing her family, she is not doing it because slavery is wrong and she feels like she can do something about it and tear it down from the inside. She just wants revenge, which I can definitely get behind, but don't be constantly whining, all 'woe-is-me' when you chose this path and you are doing despicable things. ( )

Review coming in a vlog soon. ( )

Compelling narrative

The world in this book is fictional but for me resembled the Carribbean and Dutch merchant trade from history. Very beautiful setting for a magic amongst horror experienced by so many in reality. The beginning of the book is action packed but does have several repetitive moments where the main character, Sigourney, goes over plans and backstory. It hindered the momentum of the plot a bit but once act two and location two was reached, the intrigue settled in. Occasionally, I would get lost in the narrative due to the mixture of voices in the scene. Overall, this is a magical story with political intrigue, revenge, action, and moments of a collective shared experience which we are only now beginning to acknowledge. ( )

Great Caribbean fantasy. ( )