I got this book during the one of the Stuff Your Kindle Days, and this cover and blurb sounded interested. I tried my hardest to get into this book, but something just wasn’t clicking with me. 

This book is based on Nora. She is an Elementum but unlike most of her race, she can wield fire, water, and air magic with equal power. Having been sold to the king as a child, she is now bound to him by the shackle tattoos encircling her wrists, marking her as an Alta – a secret soldier. Commanded to find an Anima who disappeared with barely a trace, Nora works to solve the mystery and finds herself in a city rife with rebellion. Desperate to serve her king, she delves into the lives of the faction, eager to uncover any information that would lead her to find the Anima. In the town, she meets Evelyn. Evelyn is a Lys Alv, healer, sister, daughter and friend. Everything Evelyn has worked for is finally falling into place, but an uneasiness sits in her stomach. Two strangers come hurtling into her path and Evelyn begins to question what she truly wants from life. After an offer to join a rebellion against the king arises, she will have to choose whether to continue following the path laid out before her or start her own adventure. In a magical world where unethical laws are shrouded in speeches of justice and safety, the king moves to gain more control of the people he promised to protect. A divide is forming, lines are being drawn, and two women find themselves at a crossroads. With lingering grief and a rising threat, Evelyn must decide where her fates lie. And Nora, first she needs the power to choose. 

I liked the characters and felt like they all had their own voices and their own reason for doing what they did and how they did it. I liked Nova and August’s relationship and how they are like brother and sister and wind each other but would die for each other. I liked the aspect of a forbidden love between August and Evelyn, and I am so rooting for them. I liked the dual POV, but I would have killed to have the POV to include August especially when the rebellion started, and we knew he was working on the inside and what his plans were with Nova.  

Towards the end of the book, I felt like it went a little haywire, I was sort of losing the plot considering the original plot of fighting Felix seems shot to hell and it was all to do with Evelyn and her journey with grief and the secrets that had been revealed. I felt like as the book went on, the pace got slower and slower when I wanted it to speed up. I felt like the building of the world and the magically powers were a bit hit and miss, sometimes it was described beautifully and slowly and other times it was an info dump to move on to the bigger issue. I feel like King Dominic isn’t a scary or villainous enough for a bad guy, I want to know more. Why is he doing this? Surely, he has spies keeping an eye out of Nora and August?  

For a debut, it was enjoyable, it just went haywire a bit and hopefully the problems will be fixed by the next book.