The darkness of the cover had me interested, and choosing a Swan as the initial bird seemed a bit of an odd choice at first.
The world building here is done masterfully, it sweeps you in and pulls you along learning alongside Aderyn about how things work outside of her own home. She has inherited the protector role after the untimely death of her own father, after previously losing her mother in an attack which has also left her flightless. This is a problem though - as only the flighted can rule over the people, if it is found out she cannot fly any more then she will be in mortal danger. Worse the king suspects something is up and calls on her to come to court - before she is ready. So with a bit of subterfuge she travels by land and arrives at court - where things go from bad to worse. She doesn't know who to trust - continues not listening to her advisors thinking she knows better - and just gets in mess after mess.
Aderyn goes on quite a journey in this book, from petulant child to having to grow up really fast at court and become the Protector she is meant to be. There is a bit of cliche love story put in here too, but it does serve the story a little so isn't totally pointless. The action towards the end really speeds up as the plots all come to their conclusions with a somewhat satisfying ending in part but with enough leeway for the next book to pick up from.
The world building here is done masterfully, it sweeps you in and pulls you along learning alongside Aderyn about how things work outside of her own home. She has inherited the protector role after the untimely death of her own father, after previously losing her mother in an attack which has also left her flightless. This is a problem though - as only the flighted can rule over the people, if it is found out she cannot fly any more then she will be in mortal danger. Worse the king suspects something is up and calls on her to come to court - before she is ready. So with a bit of subterfuge she travels by land and arrives at court - where things go from bad to worse. She doesn't know who to trust - continues not listening to her advisors thinking she knows better - and just gets in mess after mess.
Aderyn goes on quite a journey in this book, from petulant child to having to grow up really fast at court and become the Protector she is meant to be. There is a bit of cliche love story put in here too, but it does serve the story a little so isn't totally pointless. The action towards the end really speeds up as the plots all come to their conclusions with a somewhat satisfying ending in part but with enough leeway for the next book to pick up from.