I desperately wanted to like this book. It has all of the elements that I should like plus it was written by someone who went to ASU. But I was confused pretty quickly and it never got better. As an avid fantasy reader, I can allow for a good deal of world-building, but the world just never made sense and from there the story never really took off. I would love to see more by this author, maybe when she has pared down some of the fantasy and created a world and characters that are more clearly fleshed out. I thought this book had so much potential so it was really heartbreaking not to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I would still recommend it for my students, the fantasy lovers especially. As with all books, there might be many of them who enjoy it despite my opinion.