** spoiler alert ** 
 Man...I'm begrudgingly giving this 4 stars (more like 3.5, if I'm being completely honest). 
 The series has promise, my issue is that it seems like fan fiction. The only way the author was able to get messages across was by killing people. I get it, you REALLY want this to be ASOIAF lite...but the story lacks the world building of a TRUE high-fantasy novel and I think that is quintessential to the genre, even if this is a YA book. 
 I was just expecting SO much more from this...I'm a tad disappointed. 
 I'm going to continue the story though because I already own 4 of the books and I want to give it a chance.