I had a lot of trouble staying interested in this one, and mostly skimmed to the end. It started off strong, with a lot happening. Very traumatic things happen to the heroine in the beginning. A warning: she is basically forced to become a whore for a caravan and its not all fade to black. Other things happen (don't want to be spoilery) and then everything slows down. In part, this is good, because the heroine has a lot of healing to do (she doesn't just bounce back). On the other hand, it is very slow. 
 The later parts of the book are all about political intrigue. Most of that intrigue happens with letters, so there is a lot going on that the MC never experiences. There were touches there on the power of past lives, magical treasure and mages, but it didn't go very far. Perhaps that is in book 2. It had promise, it just lost me in the middle and I couldn't get back into it.