With this book I'm a little torn to be honest. The writing is great, eloquent, clever, engaging. That characters are lovely, relatable, diverse, with interesting backstories. I especially liked Henry a lot and the inclusion of culturally diverse magical practices, based off mythology, traditions and cultural and ethnical backgrounds. The magic system in general is intriguing, although it's not explained in great detail, and even though the conflict is not new, it's definitely carried out well and brought to a fitting conclusion. At times it's a lot more brutal than I expected, but it's war-times after all, so I guess that makes sense. I could easily see this made into a movie because it's very cinematographic and would transfer beautifully onto the big screen. I think my issue is that at some points there are glimmers of what it might have been with a little more daring and complexity and a little less good vs bad. Don't get me wrong, this is a very very solid book, especially for a debut novel, I just think there was a lot more potential in many aspects, so I'm curious to see what the author comes up with in her next book! Thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley for the e-arc!