Master of Sorrows

I really enjoyed this! It's a classic coming-of-age story, but with a few twists to make it stand out.

Reading wise, the beginning felt a little long-winded and it took me a while to get through it. I never felt like skimming any descriptions or action scenes though, so I really took it all in. The story was interesting enough and never got overly confusing or too simple.
As for the world, we haven't seen too much of it yet aside from the village, so there's lots more to explore there in the future.

But what always remains most important of all to me: characters!

I appreciate that our main character was allowed to have and make faults and be frustrating, while at the same time not begin rewarded for it and learning from it.

Sodar is the type of character that I normally like (father figure, emotionally vulnerable, protective) so him and Annev's relationship hooked me from the start. Too bad Annev had to be a total young adult about it though.

Titus is the sweetest and needs to be protected at all costs.

I am also strangely invested in a potential Fyn/Annev friendship, or just more Fyn in general. I really liked the growth he went through.

I loved the “romantic” relationship in it. As in, the reader could see that this was not any good, even if your main character couldn't. And you just hope that the writer is on the same page and doesn't try to sell it as the end all, be all of romance. I love that this didn't end up in the traditional way.

There's a lot of potential here and I am definitely keeping a look out for the sequel.