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This had me intrigued about where it would go up through the exile, a classic setup for the opening of an adventure, but after that nothing really gelled. The writing increasingly called attention to itself because of its clumsiness. The pacing dragged with filler that didn't really contribute to character or story development. It was like watching a B-movie where the editor lets scenes drag out with awkward pauses or needless shots of characters walking from Point A to Point B.

I never really got a grasp of the world-building, either. The writer would shove in tedious descriptions of clothing after they arrive in the Fae land, as if she felt obligated to do so. At the same time, she wouldn't paint a clear picture of important parts of the world, like what kind of land they were even in. I don't like fantasy novels that describe everything in excruciating detail, but the way this was written made it difficult to form a coherent mental picture as the story went on and occasionally disrupted it with a random detail that should have been worked in earlier.

All in all, it felt like the writer was checking off a list of tropes or themes to include rather than developing them organically as part of a more fleshed-out story.

This started out alright up through the exile, but the pacing kind of lost steam after that, 100-ish pages before the midway point I'm at. So far, debating on whether to finish the book or not, but overall leaning towards ending it with this book instead of checking out the sequel.