"Perhaps you subscribe to the notion that princes actually have control over their own lives. I beg to differ. We strut the boards, improvising like mad, only to learn that the script is already written, and we've got it wrong" 
 "Not always," Raisa countered. "I have to believe that sometimes we can write our own." 
 So I have some very conflicting feelings about this book, but I have to say that my initial reaction to it was that I am a little disappointed. So many people have said so many great things about this book (and it is pretty awesome!), but character-wise, I just really expected more depth. 
 Before I get into that though, here are some things I really liked about this book: 
 1. Even before we really got into the plot of this book, Charmcasters was conveniently defined for us as the "clan term for wizards". 
 Wizards? 
 2. I really liked the dual POV between Han and Raisa. Both provided really diverse perspectives of everything going on which was great, because all of the stuff was happening during the entire book. 
 3. The world building. It was epic, it was unique, it was- charmcasting? It was brilliant. I loved all the different realms and cities, the thought that had gone into how they all intersected and dovetailed, and the different predicaments that each realm was in and how that would subsequently affect other people and places. I loved all the stories that went with the characters. I loved how their was a thousand years of backstory. I liked that not all of it had been told in truth through out the years. 
 4. Raisa making better and better choices throughout the book. 
 I am a huge fan of character development and even though there were some times I wanted to walk away from the book, because Raisa was being so stupid, I was also really impressed by the fact that she was trying to challenge the life around her consistently throughout the book. 
 And...here are some things I was not too pleased about (pretty much unpopular opinion time): 
 1. I really wanted the POV of Han and the POV of Raisa to intersect more. I felt like I spent so much of the book waiting for these moments and there was only like one! 
 2. While I was really taken with the world building, I felt that the details of it were not isolated enough within the book and not only became redundant at points, but also interfered with the dialogue. A lot of the conversations in this book were kind of boring for me because I felt like I was in a bad history lesson rather than reading a book for fun and trying to understand characters. I ended up skimming a lot of these conversations. 
 3. Character development. Tbh there was really like...none. I like the plot so I'm gonna keep reading, but I just don't feel a connection to the characters like I normally do. I'm hoping that somewhere in the next 3 books this will change, but at least in book 1 I'm just a little underwhelmed by Han just constantly saying some shit about trouble finding him and Raisa constantly saying she pines for boys who she's not allowed to date or marry. They both kind of sound like broken records and for me the lack of self-awareness was pretty hard to get over. 
 A few other comments on book 1: 
 LOL @ everyone who can't tell that Raisa is the princess when she is literally just dressed in commoner clothes 
 I'm imagining everyone in book 2 just being like 
 My thoughts on Gavan Bayer: 
 Other than that, hopefully I like book 2 a little more than book 1! I really want to like this series!