While this book did deliver in that aspect, I feel that the formulation of the book and 'tone' (?) was a bit off putting and didn't really paint a fluid picture in my mind. I understood the plot but the descriptions wasn't really matching what I was envisioning. The best anaology I can give is "give someone a maze and instead of taking the path shortest after reviewing it all, you end up taking the longer one that is having you run into various walls along the way".
Zephyr's story became a lot more interesting in the second part of the book. Though looking back on it, I can see how she might be a god, but the references to her god like powers isn't very noticeable. That, and her romance with Crow. Crow seemed to be following the cdrama troupe of 'male chases after female' but WHY is he chasing after her? Does he even KNOW why he is chasing after her? Also, where is there any examples of his military strategic brilliance? All I know is that he is a great player of the Zither but other than that, the dude is there to cough up a lung and look hot while doing so.
I'm ready for book two though, because the tropes that were dropped in the book were all things I enjoy in my Chinese drama watching... I just wish that the writing made sense.