I loved this book so much, until suddenly, almost at the end, the romance started to take over. Just... why? The worldbuilding could have been better, but I still loved it. However, I did read a review about this book not doing justice to the Nigerian culture, so that is something to keep in mind when reading this book.
The book started as a fast-paced book, but after the introduction of all the characters getting together, it was obvious that this book was going to take a long while before real action would occur. There were some action-packed moments, but not in the sense that I was actually afraid for the characters, who I absolutely loved. They were inspiring, not flawless, and understandable. At least, until the romance jumped out of nowhere and ruined it. Why did Zélie resent Amari for such a long time and just fall for Amari's brother out of nowhere? Who had done a lot more wrong than Amari had ever done? At least we had Tzain calling Zélie out for her stupidity, but I was still so frustrated as a reader. The romance came out of nowhere, and way to suddenly, and Zélie had proven over and over again that she was not that kind of character. Apparently not... Even before anything happened between Zélie and Inan, they were already talking about ruling Orïsha together... I mean...
Oh, besides that, why did they stay a day longer with Zu? It did not make any sense! The adventure started with not enough time, and suddenly they could spare a day? As if they had all the time in the world? Why would they even choose that? Especially Tzain would normally not just agree to stay somewhere with this deadline hunting them. At that point, the characters started to act very out of character... However, I must admit, the ending made everything better. They acted like I had expected them to act again, the author was not afraid to let people die, and I cannot wait to read book two.
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