** spoiler alert ** 
 So I totally caved and bought a 14$ ebook (with a gift card!). And ehhhhhhhh, I want to say I mostly enjoyed this book...but near the end I was thinking of a bunch of things that bugged me. Rafe got beat up/hurt a *lot*, after the fourth or fifth time it was just melding into tedium! I'm not even sure what story or narrative purpose the last few times served. Also, I felt that toward the end of the book, Josetta was subsumed by Rafe and/or the romance. The story got a little hijacked and she got less interesting. So the first half or so of the novel was enjoyable, but a little too much intrigue got crammed into the latter half and it took away from the characters I found most interesting. I did enjoy the various depictions of flying, they reminded me of Summerset Abbey a bit. I also find it refreshing to read a fantasy novel that has world building so different from the usual "vaguely medieval Europe" setting.