I really didn't like this book. I thought the writing was really self-conscious and, like you, that the romance was too much at the forefront than other important elements of the book. And I thought Yeine became RIDICULOUS with the romance stuff. I am all for females owning their sexuality and being proud of female strength and all that, but she was so weirdly apologetic about it (for example, the line I quoted in my review when she bats her eyelids at him and then immediately tells the readers that she NEVER acts that way). I also hated the ending- I like your analysis of it, but to me it felt very deus ex machina and I can't quite reconcile it.

And I generally don't like PURE bad characters, and I didn't see much at all to redeem Scimina or her brother. I would have liked just a little bit of a gray area there, rather than all black. Though I suppose Yeine was pretty gray, and the politics of the books were VERY gray.