I hopped into this book hoping I would not be confused out of my mind. I have heard of her Tamora Pierce's other Tortall books, especially the enormously popular ones about Alanna, but the premise of those books didn't interest me. I hate to admit it, and this is terrible backwards of me, but books about cross-dressing, disguised characters do not interest me. This applies to manga as well; don't even get me started on how much I hated HanaKimi. This series about a young girl with animal magic seems more like my thing, so I tentatively read it and hoped that I would not be too lost. I was pleasantly surprised; it is set in the Tortall world, and presumably all the characters from the other books made an appearance, but I was not lost at all. There were just enough details given to give me an insight as to who/what each character did without giving their entire backstory. The slight insight into the previous characters so new readers would not get lost was very well done. 
 As to Daine herself...I loved her. She is strong, resilient, a bit wild, like her magic, and very uncultured, which makes sense, given her backwaters upbringing. She did grate on my nerves at time, especially with her constant secrecy and need to hide a certain aspect of her magic, but all that was very well explained by her backstory, and I found myself sympathizing with her once I found out what happened. All the characters in the book were immensely likable; there were no one major antagonist who made her life miserable, and I liked that. Not every story has to have a clear-cut bully. This is especially refreshing to me, coming from a glut of YA fiction where every main character has a beautiful, bitchy high school queen bee out for her blood. 
 The plot line was very well done; I was never bored, and I was never lost. I have weird thing for quick-paced plots where lots of action happen. They bore me to death. I know, weird, right? The action in this story, while fast-paced, was never boring, always made sense, and keep me interested. My only reason for knocking off a star was the last 1/4 of the book. The battle felt too rushed, the storytelling lost me at times, and I was confused by the action. Also, dragons, krakens, griffins, all got thrown into the mix. Not that I mind, considering I like mythical creatures, but it felt unrealistic and rushed. I'm starting the second book now, and I have high hopes.