The beginning of this one was kind of rough, but it kept improving and the ending really brought it home. There was a little too much "she doesn't know how beautiful she is" for me, but it is a YA book so I'll forgive it. The world was also a bit more brutal than I was expecting with the torture and constant rape threats - but no more so than some other recent YA fantasy series. I probably would have liked this one even more if I had read it when it first came out. I've now seen a lot of these same things in several other YA fantasy novels: the empire/resistance plotline, love triangles (or a love square?), weird trials and characters forced to kill others in an arena due to a convoluted game by the rulers. But it was a fun ride with some fun twists. The chapters felt flat in the beginning, but by the end I really started to care about the characters - especially Elias, Helene, and Laia. Excited to know what happens next.