I was hopeful for this book, and perhaps too hopeful? I felt that the author's writing style was just not for me. It felt like the book was drawn out, and the writing style, as I'm used to more contemporary writing style, was set back in the time of the book. I know, it does make sense, but it just was not for me. I also could not relate or honestly even root for the characters. They felt very just one dimensional, and blah for me. I was hoping that the back stories would be more evolved, explained, but that did not happen to my satisfaction. I felt that the book was also disjointed and was hard to follow with the events. I had to struggle to finish it. I'll be honest: I really skimmed the last 50-70 pages because the writing was too descriptive and too full of adjectives for me. I could see this book being a good precursor to another one but I have not heard a sequel yet.