I didn't click with this story or its characters. I enjoyed the last 100 or so pages, but it didn't make up for the rest of the book. I also found the ending "cliffhanger" didn't really say much to what the next book will be about so much as their will just be more books... which leaves me with no desire to continue on. 
 There really is no romance if that's important to you, and I also felt the world building fell flat. So many aspects of the world weren't explained, and when they came up you just had to accept them. 
 Also, can we leave the talking cat clans to children's books, I found it really took away from the rest of the book because of how often they had me rolling my eyes.