4.5
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this.
I found the world easy to fall into and understand and the characters interesting and complicated. I thought I would be reading a somewhat standard plot in a beautiful new fantasy world filled with magical creatures. I was pleasantly surprised that I was only partly correct because both the plot and characters were a bit more unpredictable than the summary led me to beleive.

The romance storyline was more of a background/slow burn than I was expecting as well. I have seen it marketed as Romantasy and as the series goes on it may become more romance focused, but fans of the Romantasy genre who are looking for instant love and confessions and love scenes might be left wanting.
However, that meant it was right up my alley as the story was so much more focused on trust, subterfuge, and discovering yourself and the truth within the lies.

I have more potential critiques but I'm still deciding if these things annoyed me or delightfully surprised me as a reader. For example there are things I wish were more fleshed out (the politics and creatures) and character decisions I didn't understand until much later (which I think I liked actually).
The pacing is definitely more YA to me than Adult but I'm intrigued enough to read book #2 next.

I had to knock a half a star off because I crave more magical creatures. I was hoping for us to be spending a lot more time with them and learning about the different kinds in this world, I'd read about 200 more pages of them so that we can fall in love with the whole world of animals and not just my perfect <spoiler>Gievra</spoiler>.

I really want to keep this review brief because I think it is best experienced going in cold, which is how I went in and I was completely blown away. I love the world that we're introduced to, and the way that the magic system is intertwined with the politics and religious beliefs of this world is done very well. Seeing the ways each nation interacts with magic & beasts makes them all the more fleshed out. I had a lot of mixed feelings about Kasira based on the nature of her character. All I'll say is I was conned by a woman who told me she was a con-woman. All cards on the table and I still folded (I don't know enough about poker to know if that analogy made sense). I do think that there was too much explanation throughout this book about each decision she made for the con. In a way, I think the text was worried that the audience wouldn't be able to come to their own conclusions about certain choices, which resulted in things feeling over-explained. While the book did feel slower-paced, I enjoyed the time we spent at the Library getting to know the politics of the world and the surrounding characters. I wish we got to spend more time in this world outside of Kas' focus on the con, but I'm hopeful that we'll get to see this expansion in the next book.

Kasira lived most of her life on the streets as a con artist struggling to survive, ultimately landing her imprisoned and then a lifelong term as a soldier charged with protecting the kingdom of Kalthos from dangerous beasts. But when the Kalish ambassador Vera offers her a chance for freedom in exchange for infiltrating the magical Library of Amorlin, Kasira takes it. As she forms her plan for betraying Allaster, the handsome librarian, she begins to care for those at the library and question her choices. This richly detailed fantasy read is filled with amazing world-building, well-developed characters, and a slow-burn romance that leaves the reader eager for more.

I loved the world building of this book. It was full of interesting characters and creatures. I will definitely recommend this title to fantasy readers. It was both a cozy and epic story.