A full review is coming, but here are my thoughts: 
 Loved it. The only thing that took a star away was that it could be confusing at times. That, and I occasionally didn't feel that the characters were as developed as they could be for a novel its length. I do have high hopes, though, as Shannon's definitely a talented writer and she has six books left in this deal to flesh everything and everyone out. I am a bit concerned about there being that many installments, though. Like others have said here, I can't see it lasting that long and I hope she doesn't take away from the quality of the story to stretch it all out. 
 Like other reviewers, a big problem for me was also the pretty thick glossary of terminology to get used to. In the first chapter, I had a moment of "Oh God, what did I get myself into?"--I'll be honest, I'm a bit of a passive reader and can get confused rather easily (especially in a genre/subject I don't usually frequent), so I thought it might have just been me. But seeing others' reviews confirmed that there were just some "huh?" moments in there. 
 Also... editing? There were at least four or five really obvious instances (probably more, I only noticed this many) of a dropped period, the first letter of a sentence not being capitalized, etc. It was just odd to see that many mistakes. It felt almost like the book was rushed through by the editor--although that has no effect on my rating of the novel itself whatsoever. It was just a little jarring. 
 Overall, I couldn't put it down, which was pretty painful as my reading was mostly restricted to 20-minute train rides thanks to my packed schedule. I'm excited to know what happens next... even if I'm totally confused by the ending (in all fairness, I think I'm supposed to be). 
 Definitely giving this a second read-through before the second is published.