I wanted to like this book. I really did. I wanted to like it so much, I read the entire book hoping it would get better, even though all I wanted to do was give up. The only thing that kept this book from being one star was the writing itself. It was stunning, even if the rest of the story failed to live up to the hype.

It took forever for this book to get a plot started. There were pieces of information given and a beautiful setting described, but nothing really happened. I kept waiting for the challenge or duels referenced in the description to start, and they never did. The characters didn’t really have much depth to them until the final stages of the book.

The one saving grace of this book was how well Morgenstern can write descriptions. I could picture everything, in detail, in my head as I read. I could smell everything and sometimes felt like I could reach out and touch what she was writing about.

This book will appeal to some people. I am not one of those people. I need the writing to match the story and this book falls drastically short, in my opinion.