Yzabel

A little difficult to get into, but it grew on me after a while. It's definitely of the "show, don't tell" variety, which I tend to prefer in fantasy (no prologue barely hiding a history and geography lesson!), and while it may seem a harsh way of taking the reader and throwing her into it, I didn't find it that difficult to understand the concepts (the ones around magic, for instance). I also feel like we have barely touched upon the world-building, and that there's sturdy ground for a lot of developments.

On the downside, this first volume also felt a little rough around the edges, with events piling upon each other without a real sense of a clear plot. It sort of mirrors events/life in general, but in a novel, it's a bit weird (all the more because the characters converged towards each other as if manipulated, and this didn't sit too well with the "random" side of things).

Overall it's more a "I like it" book, and I'll probably give a shot at volume 2 at some point, to see if the world and looming plots keep being developed. I just hope this next book will be at least slightly more structured.