Start Date: 08.03.2026

Finish Date:

Star Rating:

“at home, her mother says she’s fine. the pills say otherwise.”“Kitt leaves Krandor with blood on her hands and a paladin who thinks he can save her. The journey to Vestperia is long. The sea smells like salt and pine-just like her parents always said it would. And the man beside her believes she’s worth protecting. Believes she’s strong. Believes her when she tells him what happened. She wants to believe it too.”

Disclaimer : I will be spoiling this book throughout this review. I am not very good at separating non spoilers from spoilers. I do plan on figuring it out the more I write and develop these. Also I don’t know if I would classify this as a proper scholarly report, its more of a brain dumb on the reading. Like I will update this entry as I go along the book. I hope you enjoy my rambles and rants about this book. 

08.02.2026

When I first started this book it was confusing. Mainly with the time or the placement. It talks about having medication in pill form, which leads to a modern society view. Then it talks about soldiers on metal armor riding horse back from their scouting trips beyond the walls. I’m just confused on if this is a medieval setting, a post apocalyptic setting, a futuristic setting, i just don’t know. I wish there was a little more in the world set up.

The dialog between Kitt and her mother is relatable enough to a teenager not knowing how to speak to their parent figure about sensitive subjects. They have awkward unsettling tones, the mother is heavily bothered by something, implied of drug use and disassociating from reality. The daughter, Kitt, sees the problems happening and just doesn’t know how to approach it. Like how does one call out their parent figure for their medication abuse, and not feel awkward about it?

Something is definitely wrong with the mom, especially when she says “Kitt, you know I love you, right?” – nothing good ever comes from that statement. 

Another confusing thing about the visuals of this book, it talks about school and all I can imagine is the classic anime trope where the main character is daydreaming looking out the window in the corner of the room. Again another modern visual for me. 

This scene opens up a little more about the daily life in this world. It does describe a market place and cobble stone, along with the resident. We have cat people! So we are in a mythical place of magic and wonders. Its still a little vague. She does go into detail about a scene of a couple of kids playing in a park below and honestly reading what I have, this scene has been the most descriptive.

08.03.2026

I am currently about 60 pages into the book as of 08.03, and from what I have determined this is a medieval setting with knights and taverns. The whole pill thing and the school girls is what threw me through a loop. I am going to have the mind set of Attack on Titan vibes with the walls and the city village setting just to get a visual. Which there were schools and I am assuming it also has a England cobble stone city style. 

Another thing I noticed in her writing is its not very descriptive and it leaves a few to a lot of things open for interpretation. The murder or death at the beginning was very sudden and not a whole lot of repercussions of what ever happened to this. Kitt basically ran away, covered in blood, escaped to a tavern, lived there for a few weeks thanks to the lovely inn keepers, and then a random solider knight shows up to be her guardian. Which – cool I wouldn’t mind having a hunk of a knight just entering into my life so easily. 

Now at this point, I thought something would have come up, like an investigation bout said blood on Kitt when she ran away from home. However, the knight, Lumber Mills ((I have no idea how I feel about that name just yet but oh boy)), is answering a call to service, ie securing Kitt and keeping her safe.

I am thinking that the inn keepers made this request of the knights to help Kitt out. 

So now Kitt and Milly are off to go to the sea per Kitts wishes of her late parents. It did amuse me that a knight flat out stole a merchants wagon in broad day light to do just this.

I am intrigued about the story over all. Why is Milly helping her? Why hasn’t any one of authority gone after Kitt and investigated what happened and why she was running around town in blood? What’s beyond the walls? 

08.04.2026

This book is odd. 

Well I shouldn’t say odd, its just interesting. Currently I am at the point where Kitt and Milly are doing their heroes journey on the outside world. I am now going with an European forest vibe for visuals. The author’s, Yuki, writing style is just all over the place but still within. When she wants to be specific and describe certain moments its really well done. The visuals of the sun light dancing through the tree canopy, the strange and unusual colors that the character, Kitt, has never seen before. It works. 

Then they meet one of the cat folks traveling in the other direction, they exchange words and move along. After the fact Kitt brings up how Milly knew how to read the cat person’s expression. I had to go back to that interaction to try and find when that was even established. Which I don’t think it was? So I am not sure if I am reading too much into these moments where things are brought up after the fact. Or when sudden thoughts just randomly come up out of nowhere. 

Its a little hard to follow along.

Back to the scenes however, when the author slows down to paint the pictures, she does a good job. The chapter I ended on was of their first camp nights in the open area of the trail, and Kitt looks up at sees the stars in their fullest for the first time. 

The way she describes the city night life to the outdoors still makes me think there is some sort of modern light system, which still confuses me about the setting. And the way she talks about seeing what I am assuming is their version of the milky way was honestly wondrous for me because it made me think of my own experiences of being out in the desert and seeing the milking way. Now these days I don’t see the stars very often so there’s that ache. 

The story is moving forward, however I am not sure I will be getting about good satisfaction about the murder at the beginning of the book.