A fantasy story that's wrapped in the cloak of historical fiction.  I really love History and this really felt like a Renaissance set story, with the exception of the fantasy elements I kept thinking I was going to meet the Borgias and the Medici's! There are, however, dragons, time loops, ethereal figures, 

Davico is the latest in a long line of bankers and money managers and his father is one of the ruling committee members of Navola. There is an assassin who acts as his fathers enforcer and some well-meaning staff but Davico is essentially left to his won devices and would much rather be outside, dealing with flora than crunching numbers.

For someone with such a ruthless father, Davico is really quite naïve and slow to see the danger around him.  I mean the man bankrupts a rival than takes one of his daughters into his household as a "sister" for Davico (see Hostage for future good behaviour).  You'll have to wait a while for the explanation on the eye but you'll be glad you waited!

I did find the language used by the characters throughout as a bit of a tongue twister.  I'm good at languages and can work through several but Latin was never my friend and I had to keep googling things to make sure I was right.  A glossary and/or a map would have been fab to flick to but that's really my only grumble.

I really enjoyed my stay in Navola and I'd definitely revisit.  I'm going to put this back on my TBR shelf so that I re-read it and maybe take more in 2nd time around now that I've kind of got my head around the language.