I did it! I finished the book!! 
 This took me absolutely ages to get through - probably in part due to my inexperience in reading high fantasy but also, much of it, particularly in the first half, is very much packed with description and info-dumping and is rather hard to get through. I loved the characters right from the start and I was interested, I just found it very slow and struggled to get through it. The plot definitely picked up in the second half though - the second half gets 4 stars. I found the plot fun and exciting, the world intriguing and the characters (especially my baby Alec) highly loveable. 
 Altogether, though the first half had too much set-up and background getting in the way of the plot, I did very much enjoy this and, although I wouldn't normally continue in a series where I'd given the first book less than 4 stars, I do intend to with this one. Since we've already had all the set-up and background in this one, I'm hoping the later books will be more focused on character and plot and I am very excited to get my hands on the next book. :D