This was, like, fine. Great premise and lots of fun themes to play with (magic during the Spanish Inquisition hello?? Diaspora and language!), but felt flat throughout. Formulaic (poor girl finds out she can do magic and must compete in trials to escape her fate: been there) and dare I say uninspired. Luzia was uncompelling I fear.

Also, I think the Luzia-Santangel romance was supposed to be slow-burn but mostly it was just sudden (negative) and unexplained.

This didn’t read like a normal Bardugo book (which I tend to blow through normally, despite the relative cheese factor). Sadly disappointed in this