SPOILERS AHEAD

I thought this book was a fresh and fun YA novel. It does remind me a lot of Eragon, but I still enjoyed the concept and characters. It started off a bit slow to me and I really didn’t like Princess Antia’s character being so “hazy” and out of it when her people and crows were being attacked. Then to have her be depressed and downtrodden while so much was going on in her kingdom was a bit annoying. They mention multiple times that she was always known as such a strong and argumentative individual.. but at the first time of struggle (aka her falling kingdom), she fell apart and into a deep depression. I’ll admit I fast read some of those bits because she was really annoying me! Next comes Prince Ericen of the neighboring kingdom, whose mother killed Anthia’s mother and is actively trying to take all their lands over. Her sister Caliza negotiates for Anthia to be engaged to the prince for them to have peace. Prince Ericen is in the picture now and I was pretty intrigued by him. Is he going to actually be a nice guy who wants to help or is he really a bad guy after all that is playing with her? I always like the classic “YA prince” – who starts off being cruel but slowly over time you see different and confusing layers to him.

Once the crow egg is in Anthia’s possession, I found it hard to believe that no one knows how to hatch an egg? Nothing was ever mentioned anything even though her “aunt” was the main keeper of the crows? In the end, the solution seemed maybe too easy! Anthia meets Caylus during the time she’s trying to figure out how to hatch the egg but I don’t feel like his character was developed enough. He’s this nerdy and seemingly weak scientist but used to be a tough, although unwilling, fighter to pay off his fathers debts. It doesn’t seem too believable either that she’s allowed to leave whenever she wants to go to “work”, no matter the deal Ericen made with his mother. Res, her crow, sounds adorable. Obviously he was going to have to need multiple crow Magic’s but that part seemed a little predictable. Then to find out Razel has eggs! Duh! Not saying that I had guessed all of these twists (hah) to the story, but once heard, they did seem to be a no brainer.

Overall, I want to read the next book but the ending seemed rushed and I wanted more characters and story lines to be expanded.