This book is an action packed fantasy/steam punk/ghost-busting genre blending book. To put it simply an organization of ghost-busters battles to keep the ghosts in the world from going out of control. It was mostly an exciting read, but I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's action-packed with some really interesting world-building and a unique magic system, but on the other hand the characters fall a bit flat. I think it's still worth a read though. I still plan to read the sequel, as I'm interested in what happens next in the world. So if you want a quick, action-packed novel with some interesting world-building, check it out. 
 I don't typically go for ghost/horror/zombie/etc. books, but there isn't anything particularly scary here, and I'd say it leans more towards fantasy. There are a few somewhat disturbing scene descriptions, however. It reminds me a lot of Game of Thrones's undead plots, so if you can handle that then you won't have any issues here. 
 THE GOOD 
 Action packed! 
 I don't like books that drag on forever just because they can. This book gets quite a lot done in less than 300 pages. Though I have mixed feelings about this book, I was never bored, and had no trouble picking it up and getting into it. Whenever an action scene happens, and you think "ok, now I'm in for 100 pages of traveling and talking before more excitement happens I guess," BAM! something else exciting happens! 
 Interesting World-Building 
 There are some issues with how the world-building is fed to the reader, but I'll get to that later. In this world ghosts (or geists in this world), frequently cross over into the living world and possess humans, and an organization called the Order of Deacons fight to send the geists back to the Otherside and maintain peace in the living world. Deacons come in teams of two. One partner is an Active, a front-line fighter who does direct combat with geists, and the other is a Sensitive, who can actually see/sense geists and support their Active partners by telling them where the geists are and how to fight them. I find the premise of this world interesting and I especially like the Active/Sensitive dynamic. 
 Interesting Magic System 
 I like that the magic needed is split between two people, neither of which can act alone and still succeed. Without a Sensitive, Actives are blind (at least blind to geists in the living world), and without Actives, Sensitives are defenseless. The Actives use runes on a pair of gauntlets to fight. There are only 10 runes, all with different uses. It sets a nice set of limitations for magic in this world, as they only have these runes and can only work magic within the confines of what the runes can do. 
 A Main Character in her late 30s-early 40s 
 I can't remember if it's ever specified how old Sorcha is exactly, but she's at least in her late 30s since she mentions being married for 17-18ish years and being in the order for two decades or so. Seriously though, how rare is it to have a main character in a fantasy novel be in her late 30s. 
 THE BAD 
 The Characters 
 So the downside to all the action packed into this book is that the character development suffers. By which I mean there is almost no character development. Sorcha does come to trust Merrick after a while, but that's about it. Sorcha, Merrick, and Raed are largely the same people at the end of the novel that they were at the beginning. There are very few scenes spent developing the characters (besides the awful "romance", see below), and it makes it hard to get attached to them or even care about what happens. 
 Poorly Explained World-Building 
 While the world is interesting, there are some aspects that are very unclearly explained. So, apparently the Order of Deacons came over to the continent (if it has a name, I don't recall it, so I'll call it Geist-Infested-Continent) where this book takes place, from another continent (country?) called Delmaire. Some guy from Delmaire came and conquered Geist-Infested-Continent, and exiled the old royal family. In Delmaire, geist attacks are rare, so the Order didn't have much to do, so they followed new Emperor guy (again, I don't even recall if his name was mentioned) to Geist-Infested-Continent to eradicate the geists. 
 Raed is the son of the exiled ex-Emperor of Geist-Infested-Continent, but for some reason they call him The Pretender, which makes no sense cause he has a legitimate claim to the throne. It's never explained what Geist-Infested-Continent was like under Raed's father, if the people even cared when they were conquered, or even how the conquering happened. Raed also seeks help from a prince in Geist-Infested-Continent, and it's mentioned that there are many princes in this country, who you would expect to have less confusing titles like Duke or Baron, as typically countries only have princes who are the children of the ruler. Raed also mentions the princes used to treat him better years ago, but it's confusing why he's allowed in Geist-Infested-Continent at all, since his father was exiled. 
 All of this is "explained" early in the book via a conversation Raed has with one of the princes. But both characters already know the whole story so neither needs to explain the history to the other. It's like when you're having a conversation with two other people and they keep making inside jokes are you're just left so confused. The narrated explanations during their conversation are sparse and insufficient and I would've liked it explained a bit more plainly. 
 Lack of Establishing Scenes 
 The other issue with the world-building is that the characters keep being surprised by these things that were never established to the reader so the effect is totally lost. 
 There are all these rules about the way geists are supposed to act: they don't attack Sensitives, they can't cross water, etc. One of the main issues the characters deal with in the plot is that the geists keep breaking the rules. But they break the rules from the very first scene in the book, so you don't really have a good understanding about why it's a big deal, since there are literally no scenes of geists actually obeying these so-called rules in the first place. 
 Also, late in the book one of the villains is revealed, and the characters are all like "GASP, SURPRISE, NO WAY! HOW CAN THIS BE?!", but you, as the reader, are not surprised whatsoever, because said person had no establishing scene showing off what their character was like, and is only mentioned once or twice in the beginning of the novel so by the time you get to this reveal, you won't even remember who they are. 
 Confusingly Written Action 
 While I found the magic intriguing, most of the action scenes are written poorly. It's hard to get a clear picture of what is even going on. And before you know it, the geist has been defeated and you're just sitting there stunned thinking "wait, how did that happen?" 
 The "Romance" 
 Sorcha develops a relationship with Raed during the course of this novel. Well, sort of. Their scenes together are pretty forced and are more accurately described as lustful than romantic. It never seems like they actually are falling in love, they just want to have sex with each other. I don't know if that was the intent of the writing, but it's hard to care much about their relationship. At one point there's a super forced scene where they both get wet and have to strip naked and huddle together for warmth... Seriously?! Blanket scenario alert! And at another point in the novel, they spend 2 days locked in a room having sex over and over. And to top it off Raed even says they spent very little time talking during those two days.