-messy messy -is this entire country just three streets wide. so much of plot is people conveniently bumping into each other. -every hamlet is dedicated to ONE profession? this economy is in shambles. -Something about that recent Battle Scene was kind of giving boss fight. The Boss having one (1) signature move (Throw Ink Attack)? ok lol. Also you're telling me he was just there in a ivy-shrouded building. Waiting for someone to challenge him. Girl. That's a pokemon. -HORSES ARE NOT CARS BTW? You don't just park it in an alley after travelling all night (with two people riding the whole time no less!). -Our girlboss main character has eaten basically nothing but is somehow not just coherent but actively attacking grown men, saving darling children from ne'er do wells, and lowkey ignoring the entire upheaval of her belief system.

I...don't like this lol. Both main characters are acting in a way I can only describe as fourth-wing-esque (weirdly unreasonable? cliched, rather immature dialogue with the goal of manufacturing tension instead of revealing character). There's a jarring dissonance between the atmosphere and the character dialogue/action, and some of the descriptive scenes are so...clunky, for lack of a better word. Chapter 6, for example, opens like this: Coulson Faire was brilliant. A span of merchant tents in a vast field. On the far side of the field was the great castle that could be none other than Castle Luricht. The king’s castle. okay girl...give us nothing. I think reading this at the same time as Bujold's Chalion series + Kinsale's For My Lady's Heart ( all of a similar-ish historical bent, castles, kings, knights, chivalry, etc) is making me uncharitable. You can see (if you squint) that Gillig did some research, but it feels very silly and surface-level compared to Kinsale, whose work is almost incomprehensibly alien in its use of Middle English, and Bujold, who is so meticulous in her craft that you can tell, from the dialogue alone, whether a handmaiden is speaking or her lady. In Gillig's world, kings, knights and clerics use the same vocabulary and grammatical structure as peasants and farmers. Swapping 'bitches' with 'shrews' (and 'asshole' for 'knave') does not Ye Olde English make. It does, however, make me want 2 vomit.

“They rounded a turn to discover the ravine opening suddenly out into a flat bright little river. Framed by the sides, blocking the outlet, stood a lone horseman.” Unbelievable character intro. And the full title reveal? My heart DROPPED

Only 2 chapters in but our main character is soooo immediately personable. Ista I would die 4 u.

If I had a nickel for every time I developed an irrational interest in the seemingly gruff middle aged stable-master side character who secretly pines for a lost love I’d have two nickels—which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice. I love u umegat pls don’t go bald