Where do I begin... The protagonist's name being two random Norse words? The chapter that is Divine Rivals But Worse? And actual dialogue tag that is "demanded gently"? The love interest asking the protagonist if she's ever fucked a man or masturbated two pages after calling her a child? (She's seventeen by the way.) The way the love interest's entire personality changes chapter to chapter? (And no, the protagonist thinking "the two halves of his personality don't seem to fit" does not fix that.) Why does this love triangle have so many sides when it's crystal clear who she is going to end up with! 

I literally only finished this due to a reading challenge. The back 40% was better than the first 60%, but I cannot get over how bad it was.

I don't really have much to say about this book unfortunately. It was a pretty middle-of-the-pack book. Did I have enough fun reading it that it was worth finishing? Sure! Do I intend on finishing the series? Probably not, especially considering Elise Kova always says it's not necessary to read her earlier series in order to enjoy the late series in the same world.

The story is very typical  "Girl doesn't know she has magic, ends up accidentally using it and a magic-user discovers it, takes her away from her old life in order to train her, etc". One thing I did like; in the Tower of Sorcerers (I might be recalling the name wrong, anyways this is the place where Vhalla is taken to learn how to use her magic), all the different types of magic users get their own differentiating uniforms based on what element they control, similar to Shadow & Bone with the Grisha and their keftas. I just think it adds a small fun detail!

A lot of the characters felt pretty under-developed, other than the main character Vhalla, her love interest, and like one other person who I'm pretty sure is going to be an antagonist of some sort later on.

One of Vhalla's childhood friends dies, and since his only personality trait is "childhood friend" the author didn't really expand on why Vhalla is so sad about losing him or why we should be sad too.

Another thing I disliked was that the love interest is described as being "no more than 10 years older" than the MC. Vhalla is 17, turns 18 on page. So "no more than 10 years older" could mean that the love interest is 26, flirting with a minor. I know this is a fantasy book and in ye olde times people married minors all the time but it still makes me uncomfortable.