Richelle Mead is one of those authors that defined my childhood, and who still holds the place of one of my favourite authors for just that reason. I’d been a little disappointed earlier in the year by Mead’s stand alone novel; ‘Soundless’ but I was still very eager to pick up this and pre-ordered it.Now I tried to start reading this the day it came out, and I believe I actually ended up reading the first chapter about three times and I had to keep putting it down. I just could not find the will to continue, the opening chapter just seemed dull and a little simple, not at all how I remember Mead’s writing being.

I ended up forcing myself through the first 100 pages, but then I was going on holiday and trying to pack lightly, so I put this down and did not pick it up again until August- a full 4 months later.

Annoyingly it took until about page 150 until I started to get into this novel, but once I did it had me gripped as Richelle always manages to do. I was intrigued all the way through about the laws and systems in this fantastical world, and was willing for Ada to get the freedom she desired.

The mysteries throughout this novel had me tuning page after page, longing to get answers. Where were the characters going, what had happened in uncovered times, was there romances you weren’t being told about? Normally, if I didn’t get these answers Id find myself not liking the book; however with this, I find it has left me longing for the sequel.

The rest of this series, I believe follows some of the other characters through their time in the same story, and this has made me long for the release date so that I can get some answers to my questions.

This in definitely not the best example of Richelle Mead’s work, with it being a book I could easily of put down and not picked back up; but I am really glad that I pushed through  the slow beginning as it has turned out to be a great example of unique stories that she always comes up with. I’m hoping that the future books will a bit quicker to start now that the world is established and we are familiar with the set up.

I gave this a rating of 3.5 stars as although it was very slow to start, and lacked some of the world building that I love about Richelle, the story was strong and unique. The next novel. Midnight Jewel, comes out 25th April 2017, so sadly there is a bit of a wait.