The main character was very obnoxious. Caitlin Davies' excellent voice acting made her bearable; I can't imagine finishing this book without it.

Kallias

(the king) was very sweet and deserved a lot better. His shadow powers were interesting, but it was strange that there was nothing else magical in the world. It was fairly easy to predict the narrative twists. The romance has a lot of build up and I enjoyed the brief intimacy they shared towards the end. Don't expect anything explicit. The side characters were shallow and needlessly antagonistic. Even Alessandra's sister (whom we never actually meet) just existed to be hated. She was loved, pretty, and a bit dumb. Alessandra's hatred of her was very undeserved.

This includes her out-of-character insult towards Alessandra at the end of the book.

People being unreasonably mean does not make up for the main character's lack of likeability.