I picked this book up while trying to claw my way through Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. I wanted to read something easy and fun. I’m not sure this book is necessarily intended to be “easy and fun”, but I finished it in three days, so it’s doing something right.

I liked the setting – it’s historical fantasy, though I’m sure Peter would absolutely hate this for whatever inaccuracies I didn’t personally spot.

I wasn’t super blown away by the main characters or by the side characters, to be honest. Valentina was probably my favourite, and definitely had the most character growth. Luzia and her love interest (whose name I’ve already forgotten, which probably is an indication of something…) are a little bit forgettable. Bardugo is certainly capable of writing “better” characters than this, but I sort of didn’t mind it, to be honest. The romance was fine as well. Once again, a little bit forgettable but not outright bad.

Overall, if you ask me anything about The Familiar in a year or two, I won’t be able to tell you a single thing. However, I found myself sitting back down to read a bit several times a day, so it’s a solid 3.5-star rating from me.