I'm really glad you enjoyed the book! I did like things about it (I loved Persephone and her entire struggle with her family, and I loved reading about her family's machinations, for example), I just struggled when it came to the battles...

I can completely understand why you enjoy that kind of conflict — I like reading about it myself, although I prefer it when the 'system' is a character's family, place in a social/political hierarchy, or things like that, and (as is probably very apparent from this post) tend to tune out when the 'system' is the military.