I had this recommended to me when I asked friends to point me toward comfort reads, and it definitely delivered on that front. It's a story about competence, above all -- about competence and believing in people's capabilities. And about being smart and rational, which is almost never the heroic attribute in a fantasy novel; usually, victory involves strength of arms, magical powers, or possession of the Mystical Doo-dad of the Dawn, but here we have Rowan triumphing via logic. It's really neat. 
 I figured out pretty early on what was going on with the wizards' mysterious power, which I would have expected to bother me, but instead it was interesting watching Rowan deduce what she could with considerably less background knowledge at her disposal. 
 Also, her friendship with Bel was really nice to see; I could always use more novels where strong female friendship is a thing. And they play off each other well in the way where Rowan is more capable intellectually and Bel is more capable physically but neither of them is a hopeless failure in the other's area of expertise. 
 The ending leads into the sequel so strongly that one practically expects to turn a page for the next chapter, which is a bit frustrating, since it means I'll have to try to track down the second one (also out of print). But I want to track down the second one, and see what new discoveries Rowan manages to put together in its pages.