I have mixed feelings about this book! The story follows Rin, a war orphan, who attends an elite military academy where she begins to learn about the gods and her own powers as a shaman. Before Rin can finish her training, her country is invaded and she is forced to discover more about her special abilities while she tries to stay alive and keep her country intact.

I will start by saying that I do not read a lot of fantasy so I decided to challenge myself to read something outside of my comfort zone. I’m not sure that this book was the best place to start as it is very heavily focused on the war and military strategy and those things typically don’t interest me. What kept me reading was my interest in Rin and her journey to learn about the gods and discover her abilities.

The book is broken up into three parts and the first part makes up about 41% of the book. I did have to adjust to the amount of worldbuilding as I don’t typically read fantasy but I still feel like this book was unnecessarily long. I think there are parts that could have been cut without damaging the story or my understanding of the world. However, Rin made a unique and interesting protagonist and the world of gods and shamans was fascinating to read about.