** spoiler alert ** 
 First buddy read with my friend Birgit :D 
 4/4.5 stars 
 "Many things led to this day, for all of us. 
 A forgotten son, a vangeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. 
 Together, they've written a tragedy." 
 I can't believe that the first time I DNF this book. Was I sick or what?! It's just AMAZING! The first book in 2017 that I really, really enjoyed aside from a little detail: some scenes are just too similar to the HG. 
 I'm referring to the trip to the capital and Mare's forced speech, that reminded me immediately of Catching fire. Oh yes, and the Queenstrial was awfully similar to "The Selection". But since the resting parts were so good and the princesses were a bunch of badass hysterical fighters I can "forget" this flaw. 
 Now just give me some time to collect my thoughts in order to give you the motivations for my rating. 
 1) The narration 
 The narrator is a third person one, focused on Mare. Thanks to this, her thoughts are always present and make the story more involving, but at the same time the other characters are not left aside, but they're well analyzed. The style is neat and fluent, a mix of feelings and actions that make reading easy and captivating. 
 Moreover, the action scenes were really strong, intense and realistic that I was super excited everytime there was one beginning. The final scene in the arena? BRILLIANT. 
 2) The characters 
 "He's strong, he's talented, he's powerful - and I'm his shadow. The shadow of the flame." 
 After this cursed book I swear I'll never fall in love with any character, never again! I spent like two thirds of the novel drooling over the sweet, cute, shy and caring Maven, to later discover that he's just a cold, bloody, profiteering bastard! I remained literally traumathized, and I still am. And so here "dies" one of my two favourite characters of the book. 
 Fortunately the other one is still alive AND mentally healthy. I'm talking about Shade! 
 Unluckily I'm not really enthusiastic about Mare nor Cal. I hated the latter since the beginning and I suppose I will hate him still for a long time, while the former... well, more than a heroine is just a piece of the game moved by the players. She's really powerful and I'm fascinated by that, but she still lacks something, she's still not intuitive enough, perceptive enough to know truth and lie. 
 Kilorn is really cute and all but, poor boy, he's not that intelligent, plus he's this tendence to recklesness and suicide that I don't appreciate so much. But still he obviously cares for Mare more than for a simple friend, so I can partially understand his actions. 
 3) The catches 
 "Maven, help me up" 
 He rolls his shoulders, cracking the bones to chase away an ache. "No, I don't think so." 
 Sure Stefania, you hope that your sweet prince will remain so throughout all the story? It would be a shame if he revealed to be an amazing jerk. And this caused my first heart attack. 
 Oh well, I forgot the real first one. Do you like Shade? It would be such a shame if he died with you even not knowing his physical aspect! And right at the end... here he is, safe and sound! 
 Really, the second part of the book was too, too full of surprises! And most of them were bad news. Geez, I became ten years older... 
 I wasn't sure of what I should expect from this book since the ratings go from a usless one to at least four or five stars, but at the end I felt really satisfied. I was captured in the story, longing for knowing more and more about the dangerous threads that were tangling together, looking for answers. So far I found just one of them, but it's sure 100% that I'll read also the sequel to find out more!