I'm always yelling about wanting more books where our heroines are confident from the start; Lu is a dream heroine to cheer for. It's always the cocky-yet-honorable throne-seeking warrior prince meets soft-yet-feisty peasant girl with tragic backstory and secret magic, and all I ever want sometimes is for it to be a warrior princess and peasant boy instead. THIS IS THAT BOOK.

It has such a good cast of characters, with such an array of motivations, and I enjoyed each PoV. Everyone has strong desires and they all push forward toward them, be it a throne or power or safety or freedom or family; when they meet conflict, I feel the stakes, the weight of their compromise. It's a very practical-minded cast overall too, which I prefer; the characters absolutely know what's at stake and their decisions reflect that.

Lu is the girl who has everything and yet, now nothing. Smart but impulsive and overconfident, annoyingly charming but emotionally dense. I love her. So. Much. Min's side of the story is more spoilery but it went in the direction I thought she would go (I made one specific early prediction and cackled when I read the lines near the end); it's not as immediately compelling as Lu's journey but I think the most interesting part of her story has only just started. I love all the mentor figures. I love seeing more and more female characters show up who are leaders and warriors, and having all of them interact with each other.

It's very much an adventure epic. Usually I don't like these kinds of fantasy books, but it's executed well here, with not too much meandering and always a finger on the emotional heart. It's a little shallow and too-brisk at time but not distractingly so - it's just not completely immersive - but this is my quibble with all action-y books. It moves on to something interesting before I have time to complain. The core plot is fairly predictable, but since the execution is refreshing, it doesn't feel tired. It was a very fast read and the length was earned.

I have no idea what will happen next, but I can't wait to find out!