My book buddy Fergus was raving ecstatically about Book 1 of this series...then he said Book 2 was v. v. disappointing. Will be interested to hear what you think! I was very taken with his raving for Book 1, but am wary of committing to a whole series (!).

I will report back when I've finished the second book. So far I'm liking it but it is quite different from the first. They all had four to four-and-a-half stars on amazon. According to naominovik you can download the first book free from ballantine's website or somewhere. In any case, the first book stands alone and is a fairly easy read so even if you aren't interested in the rest of the series, it's worth a look. Maybe I'll do more in-depth reviews later but for now all my Internet access is coming from my phone, which makes it difficult!

Sounds right up my alley. I'll have to check it out. :]