"2 1/2 stars"
It had a lot of good ideas, but the execution of these ideas was slightly lacking. Overall it was enjoyable, so I will more than likely be picking up the second one. ( )

Interesting YA, with some pretty good twists. I'm looking forward to the second book. ( )

So I didn't so much finish this as just stop listening about halfway through, but I'm not reading any more so we'll call it here. The audiobook reader is wonderful, and the world is definitely interesting. The story moves a bit slowly for my taste, but I think the premise is curious enough that it could work for some of our teen readers.

This was not what I expected. Less fantasy, more an exploration of choice and manipulation with an odd note of fairytale thrown in. The ending was ... ambiguous. ( )

In some ways, this is a melodramatic love-triangle princess tale. In other ways, this is a tense and sinuous exploration of self-determination and being your own woman. The worldbuilding seems a little silly in places, but there are many aspects of interest (I particularly liked sin-eating, especially the consideration of how that fit into the power and social dynamics). And I found that in the end everything came back around to serve the story. It's stronger than it looks - much like our heroine, and much like her, when all comes clear and when you think about it, it was that strong all along. ( )