ladygrey
The magics in the beginning are a little confusing. There's just enough contextual clues to keep from being completely bewildering. But a good bit also remains unexplained--like why they sometimes use wands but not always. The jumps in time in the beginning also create some confusion (mostly the whole thing with Weilan who's with the princesses but not but then dead--it sorted itself out in the end but wasn't always clear on the way there). But the story is well told otherwise so I was willing to give it a chance.
It felt like it shifted point of view at the exact wrong time, when I wanted to stay with the character where something interesting just happened before the switch. It made Thea a little less engaging of a character because all the interesting things were happening to Athdar (probably because he understood more of what was going on). Eventually she was interesting enough.
Some of the sentences are a little dense and could be smoothed out. And I think because of the dense sentences Kitchen's editor had a hard time because some sentences seem to be missing words, making them even denser. Also the names are a bit rough. I get that it has a Welsh base and sometimes the combination of consonants or the use of different vowels is unusual. But also several of the characters and countries have very similar names which takes the reader out of the story enough to ask, “Wait, Ayrton or Athdar?”
All of that is manageable though. It's the pace that makes it an enjoyable 3-star read rather than a gripping 4-star. The characters are engaging enough. And I enjoy that there's a whole host of them. which are, except for a few of the younger princesses, easily distinguishable enough. The story takes its time, though, even if it doesn't feel slow. Scenes do enough to feel like the story is moving but not with any sense of urgency. It’s enjoyable so you don’t want to put it down, but it's easy enough when you need to. And you want to pick it back up, but you could also walk away for a couple of days. A few things get a little repetitive about halfway through but for the most part it's a languid, slightly dense, enjoyable fantast read.
Particularly, though I enjoyed the way God was incorporated into the world-building. A lot of authors mention God in the acknowledgements and there's a sense of that in the story. But this one really reflects a deeper connection with a Godly worldview in the characters, in the magic and in the culture which may have been part of what kept me around the whole time to enjoy the story.