I couldn't get past the use of they pronouns for a singular person. It just messes with my head too much when I'm reading, I'm afraid, trying to figure out if it's talking about one person or multiple.

Just not for me. It can't hold my interest. There isn't anything particularly wrong with it, it's just not catching me at all.

If honest I was expecting an urban fantasy type story but this has a much more high fantasy feel to it so if you enjoy Anne Bishops Black Jewels trilogy than this should be right up your street. It’s initially a very politically driven story that took me a few chapters to get really hooked by but once the characters became more fleshed out I definitely didn’t want to put it down.
Essentially we have Allegra a powerful woman who is a mage in a society that enslaves those with magic due to fear that they could be consorting with Demons. Her childhood friend is now the Holy Father and enlists her to help broker peace as riots and uprisings are increasingly pulling their world towards civil war. Allegra doesn’t believe in Demons or even God but she does strongly believe that slavery should be abolished. She’s given unimaginable powers to effect changes and obviously not everyone wants reform so an elite guard are assigned to protect her headed by Captain Rainier . What follows is a story of secrets, politics, greed and maybe even some magic. Most of all though it’s about the characters who are startling in their diversity.
Once immersed I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I loved that the author embraced all manner of people and with the headlines focusing more on LGBTQIA it felt right to read something that showed a society that could embrace all. My only niggle is that occasionally we get thoughts that took a while to be explained which led me to initially think there were editing issues.
I liked the characters, I empathised with there issues and loved that they were not always perfect. Humourous at times, with believable romance and remember those Demons in the title ? Well keep reading because perhaps Allegra is wrong !
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair