I liked the overall story and concept. It does have some similarities to Throne of Glass, but it's not exactly the same. I liked the characters, but Altair was my favorite by far. It has some great twists in the last few chapters.
****Here come the spoilers****
The bad: pacing was terrible. The pacing for the first half of the book was brutal. At some point I had to skip through the reading because I don't like not finishing a book. Reading the many chapters of the Sharr experience made me feel like they'd been on Sharr for months rather than days. I once again had to skip through reading to get to interesting parts because there was just way too much lengthy detail about them walking on Sharr. I like when romance in a book doesn't happen right away because it gives the reader a chance to see growth in the characters, but wow...it took the whole dang book for them to kiss and then as quickly as it happened it was "this meant nothing" which means it won't be happening again for a long while in whatever sequel book there is.
The good: Once they actually get to Sharr, the pacing picks up and the story is so interesting (it intermittently fall flat while on Sharr but let me focus on the good). I'm glad it was revealed that the Silver Witch was Nasir's mother and one of the Sisters. It was also pretty cool that Altair turned out to be his older brother and the Lion was Altair's father. So many fun twists and turns are in this story that it makes it worth reading.
Overall, I wanted to give the story itself 4 stars because I really enjoyed the story. However, I have to deduct a lot because of the pacing.
****Here come the spoilers****
The bad: pacing was terrible. The pacing for the first half of the book was brutal. At some point I had to skip through the reading because I don't like not finishing a book. Reading the many chapters of the Sharr experience made me feel like they'd been on Sharr for months rather than days. I once again had to skip through reading to get to interesting parts because there was just way too much lengthy detail about them walking on Sharr. I like when romance in a book doesn't happen right away because it gives the reader a chance to see growth in the characters, but wow...it took the whole dang book for them to kiss and then as quickly as it happened it was "this meant nothing" which means it won't be happening again for a long while in whatever sequel book there is.
The good: Once they actually get to Sharr, the pacing picks up and the story is so interesting (it intermittently fall flat while on Sharr but let me focus on the good). I'm glad it was revealed that the Silver Witch was Nasir's mother and one of the Sisters. It was also pretty cool that Altair turned out to be his older brother and the Lion was Altair's father. So many fun twists and turns are in this story that it makes it worth reading.
Overall, I wanted to give the story itself 4 stars because I really enjoyed the story. However, I have to deduct a lot because of the pacing.