If I wasn't crying my eyes were filled with tears. I highly recommend the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld for adults and teens alike, even if you haven't read the other books, although I do suggest the witches subseries.
3.5 stars, rounding to 4? This was a fine, single-POV character-focused story about Maia, fourth in line and who no one thought would become emperor. I liked Maia and some of the politicking, but some things were amiss for me that I can't put my finger on. I would say this is a lighter book and I can see this being a comfort read for some because Maia is so likable and you see people liking him for who he is, except Maia does receive bigotry because he is mixed goblin-elf and there are references to being raised with mental and physical abuse by his alcoholic cousin.
For so long I felt like I was watching a movie or tv show. At some points early on I was thinking the book reminded me of a distant cousin to Buffy or Scream, and was very, very in and curious to see where the book was headed. I would not suggest this for readers who don't care about reading a whole series. I don't recall when, but something happened that seemed incredibly out of place and took me aback and out of the book. Knowing there were more books after this one, the more I read the more I realized so much of what I was consuming was not part of this book's plot. I see so many people enjoyed this book and that's wonderful, but in the end I felt conned and I don't read to feel jarred to reality. So much of this book could have been left for the next for the sake of creating a solid book. But alas the whole book is a setup and I can't rate it higher.
