I liked this story. It was well-written, though at times confusing. Such as the little comments that were made about Raina's family and about her past relationship with Matthew. In a way it felt like I was reading a second or third book in a series, rather than a first book. On the other hand, we all have pasts, and so should fictional characters have. Actually, it is more silly that in other first-in-series-books the my-life-so-far can be summarized in a few sentences. Raina has books worth of past; other characters now seem boring by comparisson.

Raina is an interesting protagonist. She has a complicated, undisclosed past and she lies rather easily (and is then bothered that her lies come out to bite her in the butt). Makes a nice changes from characters whose only flaw is that they do not live up to their mothers' expectations.