I love books with strong young women characters. Add magic, and some wry wit, and I'm all in. Can't wait to read another by this author!

A wonderfully easy, cute story about a very headstrong 16 year old who is throw into some unfortunate circumstances. She travels with a wizard, North,who is not too much older than her and seems to be hiding something from her. The both of them are on a journey to stop a war before too many lives are lost, but Syd notices strange things are happening around her and North notices too.

Here is a ripping tale of adventure, magic, dueling and the threat of warfare. While the main protagonist is a fiery, red-headed vixen called Sydelle Mirabil, almost equal attention must be paid to her companion, the playful but enigmatic Wayland North. The author patiently uncovers his mystery, which is bound up in Sydelle’s. Thus the novel unfolds in well-plotted increments; along the way the reader is drawn into a tale about the far-reaching implications of wayward magic and the uneasy reign of kingdoms. What really shines through in this story, however, are the strengths of the various women. In the beginning, I was annoyed that the hedge witches—women who’d been barred from magical knowledge so that they were forced to create their own—were portrayed as the bad guys. No one seemed willing to point out that when people are kept deliberately ignorant about knowledge, that makes them little better than serfs or slaves…and serfs and slaves always rebel inevitably. So the fact that it is women who truly wield the power comes as a pleasant shock. Sydelle, Queen Eglantine and Sorceress Imperial Hekate are the ones who must juggle power and diplomacy and they are potent figures, just as capable and threatening as the rogue wizard Reuel Dorwan or the males who would use them. While many books of this tenor would be the first part of a series (especially with loose ends like family curses left hanging), this novel stands excellently enough on its own. It ends as it begins—with rainfall—neatly bringing the story full circle.

Awesome!

Pretty, enviously imaginative, and exciting. . . Alex Bracken is now an author of renown at the advent of her dystopian (BUT excellent dystopian) series The Darkest Minds, and this provides an earlier, fantastical, and lovely story. With swoon-worthy romance.

The color-centric magic system was very innovative, and again, easy to envy. Her writing occasionally slips up, and there were parts (or one part? The avalanche near the end) in which I simply found lackluster.

However, this more than deserves its five stars. Fantastic.

A lovely story. One of those books you wish were longer.

very enjoyable read..

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS! Hard to put down.