Ashley
I loved the story and political manoeuvring. Curuthannor and Garamaen in particular were excellent characters. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
My one complaint is I feel like the book was a little longer than necessary. There were a couple times when I was like, "okay, hurry up, I'd like to see something other than scheming for a while." I was ready to move on to actual actions and events rather than just the build up to those actions.
But overall this was excellent. I loved the world and characters.