This book was fantastic and very odd all at the same time. I enjoyed it, but at times it did feel very long and I think that's mainly because of the author's choice for protagonist.
Imagine The Lord of the Rings told from the perspective of Sam, or Harry Potter related from the point of view of Ron. That is what this book is. Jeni is the cousin of Sisi, the person whose adventure this is. So we get everything related from the perspective of the second shadow, which is interesting and different, but also kept me at arm's length from the true action. Jeni doesn't know half of what's going on in Sisi's head and there are many times Jeni is left behind while Sisi gets to go out and do things that are only related second hand afterwards. It made this a slow read, but nevertheless really different from most other books and for that reason I was interested. I did hold out hope that Jeni would eventually make a decision for herself and start her own adventure, but that is only the very ending of this book, setting things up for Jeni to finally get her story in an as-yet unannounced sequel.
That said, the worldbuilding is very intriguing. I absolutely loved the nature magic and the idea that something reminiscent of the witch hunts of our world could lead to complete natural disaster because the magic users were somehow keeping the balance of nature with all the rituals they performed. The aspect of the loss of magic in the land is a key element that runs through the first two thirds of the book, but somehow gets overshadowed by other elements of Sisi's storyline, specifically the romance. I expect more on this topic will feature in the next book and hopefully there will be some resolution on this topic.
I also enjoyed the BIPOC representation, although at times it was clear the author is not from a similar minority group and struggles to picture people with darker skin and how they would look, so I definitely encourage this author to do better with imagining people who are different from how she herself is, especially when it comes to darker skin and "blushing" as some of the characters described with more melanin in their skin wouldn't show the same signs of blushing as a Caucasian. Another element that was surprising and fit really well was the LGBTQIA+ representation. Jeni's love for Sisi and how "inappropriate" it is under the circumstances resonated very strongly, as well as the unrequited love. I also liked the added reveal from one of the adults in the group of characters towards the end of the book, which echoed Jeni's experiences and made that aspect of the story even stronger.
One thing that unfortunately didn't work for me was the villain. He was built up to be someone truly heinous who would be someone Jeni and Sisi would have to contend with for the resolution of the book because he had real power and absolutely no morals, but then when Sisi did indeed go against his wishes, the threat of the villain faded into the background. Jeni finds a loophole and voilà, end of problem.
That's not how villains work, and I most certainly would have expected more from someone with this kind of backstory where the brother had already taken something this person deemed "theirs". For Sisi to fall into that sibling rivalry and get away with it without any real issue is simply unbelievable and makes me wonder if this villain will even feature in the next book, because what can he really do now? But then why build him up so much in this book? He couldn't stop Sisi and Jeni in this book, and because of that I somehow don't believe he'd be able to offer any believable obstacle for the next one.
A good, solid book with potential to be an absolutely amazing one, but which unfortunately missed the mark for me.
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