A unique police procedural in which the cops are divided into three branches: Wolves, Hawks, Swords; and the people are divided into multiple races, including lion-like Leontines, flying Arielites, humans, and immortal Dragons and Barrantines. Someone is ritualistically killing children in this book, raising tattoo-like marks in their skin in pattern-like murders, but what are they trying to achieve, and can they be stopped?

One step above painful. The plot had great promise. I have no idea what the author was writing. It was unbelievably tangential, convoluted in the extreme, and confusing. The analogies were quite often meaningless. I read passages over and over. All I could do was shake my head and move on. Large portions of dialogue would take place in which you could not determine who was speaking. And it seemed at the end of the book most of the players had already really known what was going on the whole time, and for some strange reason simply went along with the whole quest of trying to figure it out, just for the hell of it. And everyone else was "getting it" in the end except the heroine, and thus the reader. The heroine would say "I don't understand", and the others would just look at each other and shake their heads at her inability to figure it out. It was maddening! Somebody explain it!

Parts of the plot were divulged (I think), but it might as well have been rocket science for all I could make of it. I've rarely read a book in which so many nouns, adjectives, and verbs have come together without actually completing a sensical thought. In truth, having read the entire book, I still don't completely understand what happened. I only have a vague understanding of it, much, I think, like the heroine.

$1.99 Kindle and Kobo sale, Sept. 12, 2022.

3.5 I loved the plot, really wanted to know more of several characters. I really enjoyed the parts of the book I read when I knew who was talking. That was the major problem, I did not know who was talking or what they were talking about more than a few times. I found myself just skimming through the muddle to get to an understandable section. I compare the premise and plot to one of my favorite series The Tarien Soul series-but the author lost me, for many pages and it did not seem to hurt the story ? I needed more direction on who said what, clarity of voice. I have never been so lost while reading a book, so much muddle.. I will read the next book, to see if this improves.

I love this book, and this series. This was at least the third read for me, and it is still interesting and engaging. I noticed that some other readers felt lost because there is a lot of history and culture that is not spelled out for the reader. That is one of the things i like about the book. We learn things as we need to know them, not to provide a shallow overview of the world that lets us understand everything because there won't be much more world building. This world is very complex, and many main characters have secrets that add to the complexity. As we move through the book we learn about secrets and bits of complexity are spelled out for us.

The interesting about this book is that Kaylin in 20, and has been part of the local Hawks (think police/detectives) for 7 years. We don't know how she came there, although we do know there was some drama associated with it (BTW, the circumstances are described in a future book, and illustrated in a short story). We know there is more to the world than the city, but it is not relevant to this book. The city in which she lives is populated with several humanoid species who live together in relative harmony; one shifts shape, two others have characteristics of hawks (can fly) and lions (have fur, claws, and even "cat breath").

Early in the story Kaylin encounters someone she knows from before she joined the Hawks. This is someone she knew very well, and who she seems to hate. That encounter is a precursor to the fact that the events in this book are tied to her past, a past she doesn't like to remember. So, we learn about Kaylin as we learn about the world, and little bits about her friends. One thing Sagara does that I really appreciate is that she carries Kaylin's friends and acquaintances across the series, rather than spending a lot of time telling us about minor characters who will not show up again. That means that Kayin's history becomes out history as well.

This book has a good deal of violence, but is safe for younger readers. While it is a murder mystery of sorts, there is only enough description to let us know what happened--nothing is graphic. There is no sex, although there is a scene or two with unplanned nudity the scenes are not about lust but about survival. There is affection, but no kissing or making out. that type of behavior is only mentioned in passing, and fairly subtly. In fact, Kaylin seems to shut down any consideration of a romantic relationship with anyone, and shows no romantic interest in anyone. She does end up growing up a bit as she has to face horrors from her past and learn to see the grey in her black and white world.

There is magic in this world, and Kaylin is at the crux of some of it. She has no understanding of her significance, and only starts to get a peak in this book. There are events tied to ancient times, and Kaylin learns she has been the subject of concern, but has been left ignorant as she grew up. While some of her ignorance was willful, much of it was not. Fortunately, she is talented at reading situations and putting pieces together. Unfortunately, she lacks a lot of knowledge that would help her understand the significance of those pieces. That turns out to be good for us as we learn along with her in a natural manner, a sentence here and a paragraph there.

I won't go into the various other characters with whom Kaylin interacts or is close. There are several and each has his or her own motivations. Many are developed further in future books.

I tried. I really did try to enjoy this book. But I finally gave up. I was 85% through this book, and still waiting for it to grab me. I hate abandoning books, but I figured if i wasn't sold on this book at 85%, then there was very little chance I would be sold on it at 100%. I just couldn't get into this author's style. The writing was appallingly choppy. There was no flow to the sentences. And her train of thought must have run on tracks perpendicular to my own, because I had such trouble following the reasoning of the main character. I just couldn't connect.

I really, really liked this book. I know that it didn't really work for a couple of my Goodreads friends whose opinion I trust, but for me, it was a fabulous start to a series.

Sagara has an economical style to her writing, which worked very well with the way the story was layered. World building and character histories are revealed through the current events of the story, which gave it a feeling of happening more in the moment.

Based on this first book I am expecting this to be a very strong series overall, and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of it!

I have been trying since April of 2014 to sit down and read this book but EVERY single time I try my eyes just want to run away from my sockets. Trying to persevere and read this book is akin to pulling teeth. There are flat characters, typos and convoluted writing and a boring storyline. I regret having spend money on this book.

I feel kind of bad giving this book 2 stars because based on my reading history I think I should have enjoyed it a lot more than I did, but overall I just found this a frustrating and surprisingly difficult book to read.

There were more than a few scenes where details were so sparse that I couldn't seem to grasp what was going on or who was speaking to who and in what tone of voice.

I also had a problem with not being given any particular clues as to where things were going in regards to the story until I was suddenly stumbling over a Surprise!Event. Like at the end when they find the big Shadow Spot in the mirror and everyone is all "Duh! Of course it's there and now we know who it is!" and I'm just sitting there thinking "are you kidding? This place has never even been mentioned before and now I'm told they all knew it was the evil dragon outcaste no-one had bothered to mention all along?!" I don't necessarily mind it when the characters are being a bit thick, but I feel very put out when I'm forced to bumble alongside them because I'm only told about the things they happen to notice instead of being given the chance to form my own conclusions.

My third, and much lesser, problem with the book was simply that I didn't really connect well with Kaylin. I found her weirdly immature and naive for someone who first grew up starving on the streets and then devoted her life to becoming a law enforcer. Speaking of law enforcement I'm astounded they let her get away with her constantly lax behaviour with barely a slap on the wrist, especially because she didn't seem to be a particularly outstanding vision of Law & Order.

Overall I'd say that perhaps this just wasn't the book for me and that others really shouldn't base their opinion on mine too much. People all like different things and though I had some problems, what little of the story I did catch seemed like it could be interestingly developed in later books and I enjoyed the wide variety of different sentient species all managing to live together. I was also curious about Kaylin's power and how it may be similar to or differ from the Imperial Mage's and Arcanist's magical powers.

I didn't review this originally, other than the rating. Probably because I just plowed straight into the second book. So I'll give it a little bit of a review now, having just finished a re-read.

I came into this after reading the 2 books of Severn's prequel - it made me want to keep going again from the beginning. They don't segue together super well, mostly because Severn is such an asshole in the beginning. But now, with his prequel books under my belt, as well as all 17 books in the series, I recognize it as the defensive wall it really is. What a horrible road he has walked. What horrible choices he's been forced to make ... as a CHILD! No good options, only horror in every direction.

I love this series, it is a firm favorite. But as I said in my review of the latest book, it isn't for everyone. There's a real stream-of-consciousness flow to the narrative that I love - I don't pause and analyze it, I flow with it like I'm floating in a river. It is a unique style, at least in my experience, and I love it... but I also get that other will find it offputting. The primary downside to it is that it can feel like it slows the action down. Like, you're in Kaylin's head as she's thinking / intuiting her way through the battle, and it can be pages of narrative ... literally mid-battle. But again, it works for me (most of the time) because in those high-adrenaline situations, with your blood pumping and your brain over-firing, seconds can stretch into what feels like hours. I know, I've been there. And so these pages of Kaylin's inner narrative are happening in a fraction of a second, but it is like we're there with her, flowing down the path of her intuition as she makes rapid decisions in the battle.

YMMV, but I love it, and I can't believe it has taken me this long to re-read.

Overall I liked this book.

What I liked:
1. Worldbuilding - just about right & intriguing
2. Characters drew me in making me want to know more and caring what happens to them
3. I didn't know who the big bad was until we met him
4. We had shades of grey for good & bad guys
5. Lack of sexism - women seemed to be treated as equals

What I didn't like:
1. Big bad has murky reasons for what/why he acts and I can't explain without spoiler child blood sacrifices - turning kids into objects/reason for protagonist to have cause - refrigerator trope but with kids instead of women  
2. Species "racism" none of the different species or "law groups" gets along or trust each other mostly because they are "other"
3. Information withheld from protagonist to add conflict to story - causing hurt and putting people in danger to "protect" her - I think the story could have been tighter without using the trope

I enjoyed the book more than the above might indicate. I didn't need to stop and rant to my husband at any point during reading which is rare. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

This book managed to say so much and yet so little. The conversations and the descriptions rambled on and on and on. Everyone was evasive. Kaylin’s friends and team members withheld vital information from her. With friends like those who needs enemies. The worst part was people didn’t even try to be sly about keeping info from her; they’d flat out tell her they wouldn’t reveal anything. It took so long to get to the point that by the time something would finally be explained, I no longer cared.

Some things like Kaylin’s bad grades were mentioned repeatedly. Aside from that being annoying as hell, everyone else’s astonishment at her lack of education made her look stupid and ridiculous. Her tardiness was constantly mentioned also. At first I questioned how someone adverse to learning pertinent information and inept at following rules could be so well liked and tolerated. It’s quite easy to explain how that happened: Kaylin is a special snowflake. There weren’t any serious consequences for anything she did. Everybody was drawn to her, and I don’t think she was deserving of her fan base. Of course she had crazy magical powers, which apparently that alone made her worthy of respect.

Lord Nightshade was the only remotely interesting character, and he didn’t even get much page time. I’d like to know more about him, but it’s not enough to make me want to read the rest of this series. Severn was too possessive, secretive and boring. I have mixed feelings about his actions in the past although it is understandable as to why he did what he did. None of the other characters were memorable, and they lacked personality.

The world building sucked. I was really confused for the first half of the book. Kaylin was a hawk, but what does that really mean? Hawks were explained in the general sense but the specifics were lacking. What do they do? How were they different from the wolves or swords? What does it take to become a hawk? Wolves were briefly touched on but swords were only mentioned. Why were the swords even mentioned since they had no bearing on the story whatsoever? The way the different groups and species coexisted was vaguely explained. After reading the whole book I still don’t get what distinguishes one species from the next.

This book did have potential. The idea was good but poorly executed. IDK why I finished it. Every time I put it down I didn’t want to pick it back up again. I did things I don’t like such as cleaning or watching baseball games because it was vastly better than continuing to read this book. It was way too long for the minor amount of info gleaned from its 500+ pages. I did a lot of skimming. And I forgot to mention that there is a love triangle. It’s just one more thing to make this book unbearable.