I struggle on how to rate this book. 
 Because I liked the story but It did not catched me. 
 Maybe it was because of the non-existing hype. When I read a book everybody recommends, I tend to read it faster. Because I want to know. 
 But this book is not so popular, even though it is a good book. 
 But after reading, I feel like something is missing. 
 The characters: 
 I think this was the strongest and weakest part at the same time of the book. 
 Echo was a very cool character and my favourite one. I liked the idea of a normal human thief being in the middle between hostile folks. She was funny and real. When she (view spoiler)[kills for the first time and the victim is Ruby (hide spoiler)], her reaction is really authentic and something which I almost never read in a book. 
 But the other characters where a little faint. A gay peacock, a sweet healer, a revengeful warrior, a thoughtful prince. I don't know how often I read about this kind of characters. Together the group was amazing, but seperately, it was nothing new and unique. 
 But still I liked the group dynamics, although they did not land a big coup together. 
 3/5 Stars for the characters 
 The plot: 
 If you are in the mood, the book is definetly fast pacing. Because you never have to wait long until the next chaos is happening. I really liked how they can travelled around the world so easily and the heists where also a big plus for the story. But the ending was kind of predictible. From the first moment on I knew: (view spoiler)[Echo is the firebird (is this the correct english translation? I hope so) (hide spoiler)], so I was not mind-blowed at the ending. Also I was kind of annoyed of the clichee when Caius lie came out and Echo looses every trust in him. I liked this kind of journey plot, but I would have liked some more nonlinearities. Something which would have blew mind, you know? I did not understood how fast the coup d'etat from tanith could work. I mean did Caius ever had some friends or followers? And why did he not do anything? 
 3,5 for the plot 
 The world building: 
 It was nice to read some urban fantasy again.With the Avicen and The Dhrakarin, Melissa Grey created to diffrent very interesting folks. 
 But I have to admit one thing. I did not liked that the Avicen had feathers as hair. Because the Dhrakarin were so badass with their warrior looks and capes, and than the Avicen had some people who looked like pigeons and peacocks. Still it is a very unique idea, but it makes the Avicen look ridicioulous in comparison to the Dhrakarin. 
 Also I liked the idea of travelling through gates with Shadowdust (hopefully this is the right translation) and the diffrent forms of governments with a dictature for the Dhrakarin and a oligarchy/democracy for the Avicen. A lot of tension potential. 
 4/5 Stars for the world building 
 some stuff 
 I am glad that I did not read Daughter of Smoke and Bone before, because I heard there are some big similarities. But I read TMI and I don't see much similarities there. 
 The story does not look like a copy cat for me, but also not entirely new. It feels a little bit like some elements from every story I ever read. But this still not means that it is copy cat, just that Melissa Grey uses popular story elements everybody likes to create a nice story with potential to get even better in the second novel. 
 3,5 stars in the end.