Erika Mugglin

This book came highly recommended but I must admit I was severely disappointed. The feudal Asian societal setting was a wonderfully refreshing start, and I enjoyed the magical wielding of the elements and how they were used esp in battle. Mamoru and Misaki were interesting characters. In fact I really enjoyed this book until halfway through when it did this 180 turn out of the heroines journey and dashed all of the greater plot building of the book with reference to the empire’s betrayal at large. I have been racking my brain to understand why everyone loved this story when at the end of the day it was a story about an insanely talented woman complacently accepting her place in an oppressive society. Nothing big changes. Misaki doesn’t use her power to protect any of the women around her by training them against the threat of invasion, or helping them with unwanted children. This walking badass just decides her dream is to stay in a place that they know will be ransacked again soon … to open a restaurant? It became some strange complacent domestic tale where you accept your fate, and your wayward husband just speaks a little nicer to you at the end. It had so much potential, but the message at the end was not one I would ever celebrate. ———— What I wanted I wanted her to leave with her children and train them and in the process take down the emperor and then face off against her backwards husband in an epic battle at the end. But tho it sets it up that way, it falls so far woefully short, and our protagonist accept their oppression.

I was instantly captured by the writing and world building of this book. It is an excellent page turning read, full of character, lore, and poignant lessons. The story begins on a small scale and quickly opens into a full epic. It is also devastatingly brutal in parts, and does not shy away from the horrors of war.