The writing style kept me engaged with both the characters and the plot. It was quite enjoyable (though be aware or animal death,  and human experimentations/death). 

If you like historical political drama with a hint of romance then maybe check this out. 

I absolutely love this author! Kylie Baker is awesome at fusing  mythology and mysticism with history and real events. 

Most of her books have an absolutely insane twist at the end that is absolutely tragic. This book is no different, though this books ending is a little less “OMG” than her  Empress of Time series. 

This book is extremely bloody and gory with vivid descriptions of humans being torn apart, blood and gore, and mass death.

Her take on alchemy is awesome and unique involving everything from eating stones for element, to specific stones with special properties like earth, air, or fire.

Cant wait to read the 2nd book in her series.

Really exciting and fun read! I’m looking forward to the sequel. 

At times it’s a bit brutal with the gore but I really enjoyed it. 

Zilan has a lot of quirky/sassy and downright rude people around her. Zilan herself is training to be an alchemist in spite of her father, whom she believes betrayed her and her mother. The story is good enough to keep you moving forward but there is some downright GORE in this book that I was not expecting or ready for when I started the book. The breaking and changing of monologues and internal thoughts really needed some help and I winded up having to re-read things several times to understand when the change happened. I would have rather had some break on the page or even just a new chapter to show there was a break. At one point you loose an entire day or two (I'm still not sure) and just pick up in the next timeframe with no warning.
 Once Zilan learns everything she can about her past, present and possible future for this book, it kinda of ends on a cliff hanger and.. I'm still not sure if I'll read the second at this point.