Very late, but I loved this.
I miss epic fantasy. Every once in a while I want to channel the Sword of Truth or revist the Talent series (McCaffrey’s Rowan/Damia/Pegasus in Flight branching). There’s amazing things that happen and some romance and varying levels of based in some world that you recognize-ness. YA/NA seems to channel this from time to time (Bitterblue, Court of Thorns and Roses, Girl of Fire & Thorns). So when I got into this and we had magic and gods that walk through the world, I’m pretty much cleared my calendar and knocked through all three books in this trilogy.
This series takes some of the fun of Greek mythology characters and puts them into a world that is in the middle of a shift in status quo. The “elite” magic class in one country has just been defeated by a collection of non-magic people banding together to protect themselves from the abuse of the elite. The upper class, having ignored what was going on around them for ages in favor of their own power struggles has left the military & officials with less power to weild it over the lower classes. To completely bring about this revolution, we have our band of five (#TropesFTW) as a mix of fighters with unique skills and one magic user who has been subverting her skills to avoid being found.
Part journey of self discovery, part political drama we follow our troop as they figure out who they are and better understand how they need to tear down the world they have always known in order to improve the lives of everyone they love. This is the first book in the trilogy, but a very satisfying start that is complete in and of itself. That being said, I’m VERY happy I was able to read all three back to back.
Rae's Alley 