At first I expected to like it a whole lot because a buddy of mine liked it a whole lot and I respect her book feelings. And then I expected to be unimpressed because another buddy of mine was unimpressed and I respect her book feelings too. And now I'm sort of confused because the book didn't meet my original expectations but it exceeded by secondary expectations and how can I really write an unbiased review when I'm letting other people's opinions matter so much before I even start reading? 
 So... 
 Yeah overall I think it was pretty good. Definitely some unique world-building going on here, and I really liked the main protagonist lady (at least at first). But things sort of take a left turn towards Romance territory in the latter part of the book and I'm not thrilled by that. Withholding harsher judgement until I can get to the next book in the series, which maybe brings back some of that original uniqueness.