Empire in Black and Gold

3.75 or, probably, 4 stars. me taking a whole month to read this is not an indicator of the quality of the book because i actually rlly liked this, more than i thought i would. the pacing was so perfect for this story imo and i cared about all of the characters (except for like 1 and even them i still didn't want to die or anything). there‘s a relatively big cast, especially as the story goes on and more side characters get more page time. and the love triangle was actually pretty interesting! i was quite surprised by that dynamic appearing in this story, as well as the fact that i liked it so much. not 5 stars simply bc there were some chapters or scenes (and that one character) that i was not entirely invested in or that outright bugged (pun intended) me. i've been in a reading slump, unfortunately, but this was a very good time. and while i'm upset i only read one book this month, i'm glad it was this one.