I was captured by the pretty cover, picked up the book, and decided to give it a shot! I'm a sucker for incorporating romantic elements into fantasy and I loved the Zahru-Jet-Kasta dynamic. What can I say??? I love characters exploring what they want in relationships, even when what they want is SO CLEARLY BAD FOR THEM AND BAD FOR THE WORLD and there is one dude who is actually deserving of the attention! I mean, this isn't all about the romance though. Our main character, Zahru, is someone who feels like the magic she possesses is really mundane. I mean, I suppose it is when it's compared with that of her best friend and her mom, whose gifts are much more glamourous. I like that she struggles with those feelings with inadequacy because at that stage in your life, who doesn't? The stakes get upped when she's thrust into a life-or-death struggle that almost certainly means death for her when she becomes the sacrifice earmarked to signal the end of a tournament for the throne. Poor Zahru, who only wanted a little adventure! She's a fighter, though, and absolutely refuses to just become the sacrificial lamb in the competition between the kingdom's most prominent siblings. Definitely a fast, fun read where you root for Zahru to find a way out of her predicament the whole way (while also rooting for some romance to happen while she's at it).