I know it's a YA book, but the writing comes across as extremely juvenile. Even as a teenager, I think I'd feel like I was being condescended to. Also a little thrown by the use of "smithy" to refer to the smith rather than the place - I don't have a problem with made-up words, but if you're going to use a word that means one thing to mean another, there should be some reason. A shame, because I would've loved to read a book about a young blacksmith in a fantasy world, but just not this one.