If you can get past those, you'll really enjoy the action and adventure. Just brace yourself for difficulty establishing the world and its characters at first, and then dealing with climatic wordiness with each book. I definitely loved this whole series and recommend it. I'm a critical person, so don't let my negative comments fool you. After soooo many books and a building mass of characters, I'm amazed she keeps pulling out new voices. The narrator is great, though! I'm definitely a huge fan of Khristine Hvam! She does a great job with all the character voices, keeping them separate and recognizable without needing to tell us who's speaking. It's almost like the author starts out on the right path of being wordy to tease and build up your emotions, but then just keeps going and going until you're like, 'enough already, just get on with it.I get that the 'word' is complicated' (you'll know what I refer to when you read it - not a spoiler). There is so much adventure and mystery! On the other side, it's sooooooo wordy!!! You're in the middle of an intense action/climatic scene and I feel like the intensity and build up get overtaken by the wordiness. I even love the struggles and challenges and the main story lines. I love her world (Elantra) and I love the characters. Book 2 is AMAZING! I'm in a love/hate relationship with this author. But book 2 is definitely worth working through the complicated world development of book 1. Book 1 was hard to get into at first, because the world and its many casts of people are very difficult to grasp at first. The first two books were my favorite, especially book 2. You keep feeling like 'Okay, this book will be the one', but then I'm disappointed by the end and left hanging. The author basically teases you throughout the series. It's definitely addicting.but by the end of the last book I'm still hanging and holding out for some major relationship development of the heroine.

I read this entire series back-to-back so I'm only going to comment on the first book's board. Addicted to the series, but leaves you hanging.

Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara