I have too much to say, so I'll summarize this.
The pros?
The story begins slowly, and the execution was fantastic.
This is surprising, since I'd skim through or altogether not read the story if it felt poorly written.
The characters felt for the most part memorable, though the sequel book's sudden introduction of a new protagonist left me confused on that.

The villain is built up to be quite cunning, whilst having a reason to stop the protagonists.

The cons?
While I wouldn't say the story had poor execution, the introduction of the important characters felt a little out of place. The development of those characters allowed this to be a good thing in itself.