cool, original, but not as "Grand" that we announced

Nathan is an orphan, despised by his white wizards pairs because it was born of a forbidden union between a witch and a fearsome dark wizard. The dark wizards were hunted down and killed by white wizards.
Thus, his mother committed suicide at his birth. Her older sister makes him responsible for the death and belittles all the time. Its pairs white wizards do not recognize it as such, they despise. It is the "ugly duckling" of his line which nobody knows what to do. The council of the white wizards tirelessly summons for testing. It is a guinea pig, and not entitled to any consideration, no love. Worse it will soon shut its 14 years and trained like an animal that we must prepare.

I was actually grabbed by the story. I loved monitor this unusual young hero. Hoping to see him break free of his chains. It's so martyred and yet so strong and independent that it is quickly endearing. What suffers is a nightmare, some love or recognition in her life, if not his grandmother's withholding affection. But above all the complicity he has with his brother Arran, and to a lesser extent with his sister Deborah. And finally the beautiful romance that is born between him and Annalise.
For everything else, his life is a continual testing.
I turned the pages with a lot of different emotions, regaling me brief moments of tenderness with his family or with Annalise, following the story with the desire that the wheel finally turns to him and he retaliates white wizards that make him suffer this nightmare.

The story is black. I felt I was falling into a Harry Potter version of "black". Little room for the pink, that's clear.
Yet I loved this darkness that emerges from each chapter, without ever falling into the maudlin.

However, some things have grieved me.
For example the change of utterance. The narration is in first person with the view of Nathan. But sometimes early in the book, the narrator uses the second person to talk about himself. Then very quickly the changes stop, without understanding why ... These changes of utterance are quite strange and seemed to me unnecessary.
Moreover, in the middle of history I found that everything was going too fast, events are linked suddenly with little credibility ease. Nathan goes from slave status to hero who gets his way ... A little easier in my opinion. Some details are missing to give us a clear common thread in all of this.

However I was particularly charmed by the story of sorcerers, and I wish I had more details about this war between white witches and black witches. Nathan as illegitimate descendant of the two is an exceptional being. It awakens the curiosity of all, including us readers. Yet we discover things along it, and the end leaves us in the lurch, with a lot of suspense. The author seems to keep the information we deliver over the volumes.

An end, we certainly see coming ahead but a small effect.

For all these reasons, I will not put my favorite, but it remains, in my view, a very good first book for a series that promises to be thrilling.